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SKETCHES ABROAD 



WITH 



PE^ AND PENCIL. 

( 

BY 

FELIX O; C. c DARLEY. 



The Drawings engraved on Wood by J. Augustus Bogert and James 
L. Langridge. 



LONDON: 

SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON, 

Crown Buildings, 188 Fleet Street. 
1868. 



9 



-9 



4«it 



► • • * s. c ' c' 

. • O l> "o, «< 

• c tut e ,. e 

ice « i r « i 



A WORD TO THE READER. 



I would say to the gentle reader that the 
contents of this rather consumptive little vol- 
ume were not intended, originally, for the public 
eye, but for the eye domestic ; being extracts 
from familiar letters written from abroad to my 
family at home, and for their especial pleasure 
and benefit. At the suggestion of a friend, 
I was induced to put them into type and use 
them as a thread whereon to hang the illustra- 
tions, the originals of which were, for the most 
part, drawn from railroad cars, the coupe of a 
diligence, the back of a mule, or from the deck 
of a steamer. The reader will take them for 
what they are worth. 

I have but skimmed the surface of things — it 
may be too lightly things heavy and too heavily 
things light ; but I take it for granted that all 



IV A WORD TO THE READER. 

I have touched upon is familiar to my country- 
men, — they being a remarkably travelling peo- 
ple, who are to be found,. at all seasons and hours, 
in every corner of the habitable globe, with a 
laudable desire to know everything, and with 
that penetrative insight into "facts" which dis- 
tinguished the ingenious Mr. Gradgrind. 

I have avoided Murray and his details ; said 
nothing of the population of any village, town, 
or city I have visited, nor measured the width, 
height, or length of their public buildings ; neither 
have I made any remarks upon the political or 
social condition of Europe, knowing these things 
to be done daily, by far abler pens than mine. 

I have sketched only and finished nothing, and 
trust that amiable body known as the " Public," 
will look upon my short-comings, in this ex- 
tremely mild literary effort, with an indulgent eye. 

September, 1868. D. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, 



i. English Soldiers playing Cards. page 

2. Departure i 

3. The Abbe 3 

4. Chester 6 

5. Phgenix Tower 7 

6. The Way we saw England . . . . . .9 

7. The Tomb of a Crusader . . . . . . 14 

8. The Block and Axe in the Tower 19 

9. Effigy of Henry IV. in the Tower .... 20 

10. English Policeman on Duty . . . . . . .21 

11. Street Minstrels in London 27 

12. Anne Hathaway's Cottage . . . . . . • . 28 

13. Kenilworth Abbey . 30 

14. Armor in Warwick Castle . . . . . . -31 

15. "Dear Sir John" 37 

16. Font in the Chapel at Haddon Hall . . . .38 

17. Norman Staircase 41 

18. Tomb of the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral 42 

19. Gendarme 43 

20. Encounter with the Minute Foreigner ... 46 

21. Mounted Gendarme . . . . . . . .47 

22. bonnivard . 50 

23. Swiss Shrine . . 51 



VI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

24. " Hair-erecting Process " 52 

25. Swiss Peasant ... 54 

26. Taking Leave of my "Apple on Four Sticks" . . 55 

27. " Doing " the Alps 56 

28. Swiss Chalet 58 

29. Swiss Peasant 59 

30. Goat , 60 

31. Priest in the Cathedral at -Munich . . . -63 

32. Peasants in the Chapel 64 

33. Sketch from the Window of the Hotel . . .67 

34. Near Ragatz 68 

35. jungfrau and executioner 69 

36. Peasants in "their very peculiar Best." ... 70 

37. Railway Official 70 

38. Towers of the Wall of Nuremburg .... 72 

39. Figure of the Madonna on the Public Fountain . . 73 

40. Market- Women at Heidelberg 76 

41. A Nurse at Baden-Baden 79 

42. Dutch Fishermen . . . 80 

43. Putting in the Fine Touches 8^ 

44. The Statue of Rubens 84 

45. Jolly Dutchmen S5 

46. The Artist without Hands 87 

47. Peasant 8S 

48. Market- Women at Antwerp 88 

49. Fish- Women at the Hague 92 

50. My Imaginary Nurse 93 

51. Bulwer 98 

52. Shepherd 102 

53. In the Street at Nice 103 

54. Entering a Town on the Corniche Road ... 105 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Vll 

PAGE 

55. On the Corniche Road . . . . . . . 108 

56. A Friar 109 

57. Struggle for a Dip ......... 113 

58. Italian Peasants . .114 

59. The "Double Beggar" 119 

60. Priest and Beggar 124 

61. Boy and Censer 129 

62. The Lazy Neapolitan . . . . . . . .130 

63. On the Molo at Naples 130 

64. Pathetic Strains . . . . 131 

65. Trained Dogs 132 

66. Scene in Front of the Hotel 132 

67. Skull of the Faithful Soldier 135 

68. Italian Shepherd 137 

69. Turnip Boy 141 

70. Capuchin 142 

71. A "Rising" Man 149 

72. Hunter on Horseback . 151 

73. Wayside Shrine .152 

74. Models at Rome 153 

75. At the Fountain 154 

76. Beppo 160 

77. The "Gentleman on the Wall" 161 

78. Guarding the Flocks 161 

79. Guliano de Medici 167 

80. Devotion 173 

81. Gondola 174 

82. A Canal in Venice 176 

83. Venetian Water-Carrier 181 

84. Melancholy Waiter . ■ 184 

85. Peasants going to their Work 186 



SKETCHES ABROAD. 



Steamship "Cuba," 
June 8, 1 86-. 

ERE we are at sea, 
on board the good 
ship Cuba, weather 
fine, and the sea, 
unlike many of our 
passengers, in a 
lively condition, the 
white caps dancing 
about in a jolly 
manner. Our fel- 
low voyagers ex- 
hibit a variety of 
expression ; some, expectant of that awful mo- 
ment when the inner man rebels against the con- 
stant rising and falling of the deck, have thrown 
themselves down upon it, and are forcing a feeble 
smile to convince you that they are " quite com- 
fortable." Some, pale and limp, are reclining 




2 SKETCHES ABROAD 

with their heads on the shoulders of sympathiz- 
ing friends, while others stagger to the guards, 
over which they hang in a collapsed condition, 
and many who are " never sick," walk the deck 
w r ith determined stride, confident and cheerful. 
One poor, old gentleman, an invalid, lies out- 
stretched in his sea-chair, wrapped in a large 
plaid shawl, with his felt hat tied under his chin 
leaving his nose alone visible, a forlorn picture of 
patient suffering. The captain, majestic and re- 
served, is seen upon the bridge with the glass at 
his eye, scanning a distant sail, while the boat- 
swain pipes his shrill call to the hands to " Lay 
aft." By the smoke-stack is gathered a group of 
gentlemen warming their backs and puffing the 
fragrant weed. Suddenly the ship rolls, and one 
individual with red whiskers and an excess of 
nose, who has been reading a newspaper, turns 
over unexpectedly upon his back, slides quite 
across the deck, — stool and all, — accompanied 
by two ladies. The bell rings for dinner, and all 
who can, dive instantly into the cabin to attend to 
the most important business of the day. Five 
times during the twenty-four hours, do we go 
through this interesting process, ending at night 
with the delectable composition known as "Welsh- 
rare-bit," with something hot. After each meal we 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



return to the deck, lounge upon the stern railing, 
and amuse ourselves watching the gulls, as, with 
their wild cry, they follow in our wake and dip to 
the surface of the sea to pick up the debris of our 
feast, which has been thrown overboard. 

Among our fellow-passengers we have some 
strange contrasts of character. There are two 
Frenchmen of the navy, a purser and his dear 
friend, a lieutenant, whom he occasionally em- 
braces, — a rattling, giggling, riggling little fellow, 
who chirps and sings 
snatches of French 
songs, all day. Then 
there is a French abbe, 
cheerful, good-natured, 
and blundering in his 
English, which he tries 
hard, but vainly, to 
acquire. Then a gen- 
tleman who has served 
as a volunteer through 

the Rebellion — a most earnest patriot, whose 
hatred of traitors, and intense energy when giv- 
ing expression to his sentiments, are beyond my 
powers to convey. He is a wiry, nervous man, 
with rigid vertebrae and a hooked nose, and illus- 
trates, with fiery action, his experience during the 




4 SKETCHES ABROAD 

war; frequently bringing his iron fist much too 
near your nose ; making you wink and dodge, 
while you venerate his patriotism. There is an- 
other worthy man, of an entirely different stamp, 
from the far West — a tall, lank clergyman, of an 
inquiring mind, with a small, penetrating, blue 
eye, whose glance enters your brain like a gimlet, 
while he button-holes you in the corner by the 
smoke-stack. His stomach is unfortunately weak, 
and he is, consequently, always retiring to his 
berth, but is sure to turn up again, a little faded 
in his complexion, with the remark that he " feels 
better." We have also a rebel, — a lively, amiable 

rebel, who swears he is the " d dst rebel in all 

the South," — but we dont believe it, for the 
pleasant twinkle in his eye contradicts it. At the 
bow, daily appears a group of English soldiers, in 
their red jackets and knowing little caps, loung- 
ing on the railing or lying on the deck playing 
cards. 

This life at sea is certainly very monotonous ; 
it drags ; all days are the same with us, and we 
find it difficult to kill time. A floating spar or 
plank passes, and in a moment becomes a subject 
of intense interest ; every one rushes to the side 
of the vessel to gaze upon it, and the mind in- 
stantly gives it a history : it may be all that re- 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 5 

mains of a wreck upon the mighty ocean, and 
could, perhaps, " a melancholy tale unfold " of the 
" desolate rainy seas." Sometimes a whale comes 
in sight, its vast body rolling along and shining 
like an immense bottle, while it blows and sinks, 
again to rise, till lost in the fog that hangs upon 
the horizon. This morning we passed an ice- 
berg, a glittering and dangerous beauty, which, if 
encountered, proves, like many other beauties, 
cold and unyielding ! 

It is about time now for " something hot," so 
good-night. I shall send this letter from Queens- 
town. 




SKETCHES ABROAD 



Chester, June 19. 
S Liverpool is sim- 
ply a commercial 
city, it was not par- 
ticularly interest- 
ing to us, and we 
came on to Chester 
at once. This town 
is the oldest in 
England, having 
been settled by the 
Romans ; and frag- 
ments of Roman buildings, monuments, and 
coins, are being constantly discovered. 

Soon after we arrived, we went to the Cathe- 
dral, built in the tenth century ! " Think of it ! 
dream of it ! " As it was Sunday, we entered to 
enjoy the service, and had the pleasure of hearing 
the Rev. Hugh McNeil, one of the celebrated 
preachers of England. The effect to me was like 
a dream ; none of us could realize it ; and the 
grand and imposing music, taken in connection 




WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



with the antiquity of the place, produced a most 
singular effect upon 
the mind : the mod- 
ern costume, the 
dress-coats and bon- 
nets by which we 
were surrounded, 
seemed entirely out 
of place in this 
time-honored build- 
ing. After the con- 
gregation left, the 
verger — of course 
for a considera- 
tion — showed us 
through the noble 
cathedral, pointing 
out its various ob- 
jects of interest. In 
the crypt, we groped about among vaults and 
pits, looking to each other, in the " dim relig- 
ious light," like so many ghosts. We afterwards 
passed through the cloisters, then out into the 
sunlight, where the monks lie buried. I gathered 
some leaves from the rich masses of ivy which 
almost cover the venerable walls. In the after- 
noon, we walked on the old wall which surrounds 




8 SKETCHES ABROAD 

the city, and came to one of the towers, from the 
top of which Charles I. is said to have witnessed 
the defeat of his army by Cromwell, at the battle 
of Rowton Moor. I made a sketch of it, also 
of another, covered with ivy and as beautiful as 
possible, with the River Dee in the distance, and 
the mountains of Wales beyond. 

The whole place is exceedingly interesting to 
us ; the old houses are so singular, with their 
overhanging gables and carved fronts — so old, 
and yet so new to us. In one street, we passed 
through a sort of arcade formed by the second 
stories of the houses projecting over the side- 
walk ; here were the principal shops. During 
the great plague, one house only escaped its rav- 
ages ; it is still standing, and bears the inscription 
" God's Providence is mine Inheritance." 

On the next day, we visited Eton Hall, the seat 
of the Marquis of Westminster, the most magnif- 
icent place, it is said, in England. As we drove 
for three miles, through the grounds to this splen- 
did residence, we saw the deer under the wide- 
spreading oaks, while the pheasants and rabbits 
in the grass were as tame as hens. I can give 
you no idea of the splendor of the place : we 
entered first the hall, which is about fifty fett 
square, and around which are placed in niches, 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 9 

suits of armor ; one of a crusader in chain-mail, 
the rest in plate armor. In the dining-room and 
library, are some pictures by Rubens, and several 
family portraits by Reynolds, West, Hopner, and 
Gainsborough — those by the last two are cap- 
ital 




lO SKETCHES ABROAD 



Tintern, June 2 2. 

/^N Tuesday, we left Chester for Caernarvon, 
^^ and stopped for an hour or two at Conway 
to see the castle, built, as you know, by Edward 
I. : a most magnificent ruin on the banks of the 
River Conway. One of the railroad men acted as 
our guide, and we ascended one of the towers, 
from the top of which we enjoyed an exquisite 
view of the surrounding country. We then re- 
turned to the tower and visited an old mansion 
which was built by the Earl of Leicester, and 
where he often entertained Queen Elizabeth — a 
curious old place. In the banqueting-room the 
letters E. and R. D. — Elizabeth and Robert 
Dudley — are seen above the mantel-piece, on the 
oak panels around the room, and on the ceiling. 

After lunching at the " Erskine Arms," we re- 
turned to the railway station, and proceeded to 
Caernarvon. We secured rooms at the hotel, and 
then hurried to the castle. This ruin is still finer 
than the last, being much more grand and exten- 
sive. We explored every part of it, went up 
winding stairs quite hollowed out, perhaps by 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 1 

mail-clad feet of former centuries. As we as- 
cended, passing through dilapidated passages and 
ruined chambers, — wherein the fire-places are 
still visible, — the startled rooks flew, screaming, 
from their nests ; we were quite wild with delight. 
We passed the night at the " Royal George," and 
a charming old place it is, clean and cosy, like all 
English country inns. 

In the morning, we mounted to the top of a 
stage-coach, fondly anticipating a delightful drive, 
as we had been told that the scenery is magnifi- 
cent in this part of Wales : but, alas ! the sun, after 
struggling with the mist for some time, finally 
retired from the contest, the mist changed into a 
rain, which completely hid the landscape from us, 
and we were very glad, at Corwen, to enter a rail- 
way-carriage, in which we went rapidly to Shrews- 
bury, where we passed the night. 

On Thursday, we took the cars to Hereford, 
and went immediately to the cathedral, which is 
truly magnificent. The verger was officious, as 
usual, showing us tombs of the twelfth, four- 
teenth, and fifteenth centuries, with knights and 
bishops on their backs, the latter with their 
mitres and crosiers, while the knights were in full 
armor — the crusader in his shirt of mail and 
with crossed legs. One tomb of the time of 



12 SKETCHES ABROAD 

Elizabeth, with the figures colored, has a very 
strange effect ; all of these were more or less 
broken by Cromwell's soldiery. I sat upon a 
chair which had once been occupied by King 
Stephen, and we were shown a book written by a 
monk a thousand years ago ; a crosier taken from 
the coffin of a bishop of the eleventh century, 
which was opened in 1861, when the body was 
found enclosed in lead, and perfect ; WicklifTe's 
Bible, the first translation ever made, and the first 
map of the world, a very curious and amusing 
production. This is a small portion of what we 
saw, but I should weary you as well as myself, if 
I attempted to tell all. 

From Hereford to Ross by rail, and there we 
hired a wagon and drove twenty-two miles through 
the most exquisite country you can imagine, to the 
" Beaufort Arms " at Tintern. I can see the Ab- 
bey from the windows of this room, — it is not a 
hundred yards from me, — and the stars are glit- 
tering through its lovely ruins as I write. While 
they were preparing tea for us, we walked over 
to look at the remains of this once magnificent 
building, of which nothing is left but the walls 
covered with clustering ivy, where the rooks build 
by hundreds, making an incessant cawing. Near 
the refectory, partially concealed by the grass, are 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. I 3 

some time-stained slabs covering the dust of 
monks. What must not this fine old monastery 
have been in its days of splendor and power ? It 
is a poem in stone, and a most noble one. The 
scenery about it is lovely, — only a few quaint 
cottages are near. This exquisite ruin, the dis- 
tant hills, the river winding through the quiet 
valley, the entire landscape warmed by the rays 
of the setting sun, formed altogether a scene I 
shall not easily forget. 

England is particularly interesting for its his- 
torical associations and the rare beauty of its 
scenery. The cottages are charming, and the 
in'ns are as comfortable as possible, often sur- 
rounded by neatly kept gardens full of bright 
blossoms and shrubbery. The " Beaufort Arms," 
where we now are, is the most picturesque one 
that we have seen ; of stone, with its latticed win- 
dows half covered with flowering vines, and the 
porch one mass of luxuriant ivy. I shall always 
advise friends wishing to see Tintern Abbey, to 
pass the night here, and see the ruins at sunset, 
by moonlight, and at early" dawn, as we have. 



H 



SKETCHES ABROAD 




i^i^mimm^mm 



Exeter, yune 23. 
E left Tintern this 
morning with great 
reluctance, and 
went to Gloucester 
and to the cathe- 
dral, which, if pos- 
sible, is finer than 
that at Hereford. It is impossible for me to con- 
vey even a slight idea of its magnificence, or of 
the interesting monuments it contains. Among 
many others we were shown that of Edward II., 
who, you remember, was murdered in Berkeley 
Castle. This tomb is, perhaps, the most interest- 
ing of all ; the face of the king has a sad smile. 
There is also a monument to Robert, Duke of 
Normandy, son of William the Conqueror ; on 
the tomb is his figure carved out of Irish oak and 
colored ; he is dressed as a Crusader, in chain- 
mail, legs crossed, and in the act of drawing his 
sword ; the figure is so light that I raised it with 
one hand with a very slight effort. Cromwell's 
soldiers knocked it to pieces during the Great Re- 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 5 

bellion, but the fragments were put together again 
after the Restoration. There is a monument to 
" John Bower, and Anne his wife," with no less 
than seven sons and six daughters, who are all on 
their knees — the sons behind Bower, senior, and 
the girls behind Mrs. Bower. They all appear to 
be exceedingly jolly over the death of the old 
folks, and are clapping their hands. " The 
babies," as a friend of ours facetiously remarked, 
" cutting round the corner of the tomb to be in at 
the death ! " These old fellows had a very small 
sense of the ridiculous, or they would not have 
had that kind of thing put over them. In the 
Chapter House was crowned Henry II. There 
were several other tombs with figures of the 
eleventh, twelfth, and seventeenth centuries, many 
of them very elaborate and beautiful, but villain- 
ously ugly as portraits 

To-morrow we shall visit the cathedral here, 
and then start for London, stopping on the way 
for a flying look at Salisbury Cathedral. 



1 6 SKETCHES ABROAD 



London, June 29. 

/^N Saturday night, we reached this immense 
^-^ city, and have decided to try the " Charing 
Cross Hotel," until we can find " lodgings " to 
suit us, as we are told that is the most agreeable 
way to live in London. From the window of 
my room I can see St. Paul's, and the vast city 
stretching away on all sides. In the morning we 
drove to Westminster Abbey to hear the service ; 
as it was Sunday, we were obliged to defer our 
visit to the monuments. On our way home we 
saw the Horse Guards, two of them sitting on 
their horses under archways, like statues, remind- 
ing us of illustrations in the " London News." 

On Monday, we went to the Royal Academy 
and National Gallery, which are both in the same 
building. The exhibition at the first is very good 
as a whole, containing some fine works by Land- 
seer, and some strong portraits painted with great 
vigor and breadth. The Landseers are charming, 
showing wonderful freedom and truth ; much bet- 
ter than I expected, as I have always understood 
that his pictures were poor in color. The rooms 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL 1 7 

were crowded, too much so for comfort, — the 
weather being quite hot, — and we retreated to 
the National Gallery, which, being a permanent 
exhibition, was not so well attended. Here we 
had a glorious treat. The first picture that forci- 
bly struck me, as I entered the second room, was 
a splendid head by Rembrandt, — great would be 
the better expression, — so full of life, it almost 
seemed to think. There hung, also, a " Portrait 
of a Gentleman " by Vandyke, another marvelous 
work of genius ; Velasquez' portrait of Philip of 
Spain ; several more heads by Rembrandt, all 
fine, especially one of himself as an old man ; a 
very fine Turner next to a Claude ; the latter 
rather disappointed me. I only glanced at the 
rest, having an engagement which obliged me to 
leave ; but I intend to return soon and spend a 
morning there. 

We have been to the Kensington Museum, 
which is filled with an immense variety of articles, 
together with fine pictures of the English School, 
from the time of Reynolds to the present day, 
as well as the celebrated cartoons by Raphael. 
Here are Wilkie's exquisite " Village Festival " 
and " Blind Fiddler," and Hogarth's works which 
show a wonderful power of invention and knowl- 
edge of character. 



1 8 SKETCHES ABROAD 

On one morning we visited the Tower, a place 
of intense interest, as you know. After waiting 
in an out-building until a sufficient number of 
visitors had arrived, we were conducted by the 
Warder, dressed in the style of the Beef-eaters of 
Henry VIII.'s time, to the Horse Armory. Here 
are about thirty figures, in full armor, from the 
time of Edward I. to that of James II. ; many of 
them known to have been worn by various kings 
of England. Opposite to these are glass cases 
filled with arms and armor of many nations and 
periods ; among them a suit of Greek armor of 
two thousand years ago, the helmet like that of 
Minerva ; also, ancient arms of the early Britons 
and Romans ; splendid armor from India, the 
stocks of the guns inlaid with jewels. There 
were stacks, piles, mountains of arms! arranged 
on the walls and ceilings in every imaginable 
shape, and in fine taste. We were afterwards 
taken to Elizabeth's. Armory, in the White Tower. 
In this room Raleigh was confined many years, 
and, opening into it, is the cell where he slept, 
twelve feet long by eight wide ! On each side of 
the entrance, are names cut in the stone, by for- 
mer prisoners of state. Opposite the cell stands 
the block on which the Lords Balmarino, Kilmar- 
nock, and Lovet, were beheaded ; it is nearlv 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



19 




black, and of solid oak ; the marks of the axe are 
distinctly visible. Near it, rests the axe used at 

the execution of Lady Jane 
Grey and Anne Boleyn. 
We next entered the Beau- 
champ Tower ; the walls are 
covered with names and re- * 
marks, cut in the stone by 
various unhappy state pris- 
oners. We were shown the 
room in which the children 
of Edward IV. were mur- 
dered, and the narrow, wind- 
ing stairs, down which the bodies were thrown; 
the bones were found at the bottom of these 
stairs by some workmen in the reign of Charles 
II., you remember. As I left this chamber, which 
is directly over the Traitor's Gate, I paused- to 
lean upon the top of the portcullis, and looked 
down upon the spot so often trodden by those 
famous in history. This portcullis is the only 
one in England which is in a good state of pres- 
ervation, and is raised and lowered twice a year ; 
it was made in the thirteenth century. As we 
came out of the Tower into the Court, or Green, 
as it is called, we saw the brass plate fixed in the 
ground, on which is an inscription to the effect 



20 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



that, on that spot, were executed Lady Jane Grey 
and Anne Boleyn. On parting with our guide, 
he gathered some flowers from his garden in the 
moat, and presented them to the ladies. 




WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



21 




London, July 23. 
N Thursday, we paid an- 
other visit to Westminster 
Abbey (entering at the 
Poets' Corner), and found 
ourselves at once among 
the monuments of the illus- 
trious dead : of Gray, Pope, 
Shakespeare, Addison, and 
a host of others, whose 
names have been familiar to 
Henry VII.'s chapel is truly 
magnificent ; very elaborate and delicate in de- 
sign, in strong contrast with which are the tombs 
of the four Georges, simply flat slabs in the 
pavement ; — we consequently had the honor of 
walking over those royal individuals. It is not 
worth while to enter into a minute account of all 
we saw in this time-honored Abbey, so I will 
merely tell you of the coronation chair of the 
time of Edward I., in which all the kings and 
queens of England have been crowned since his 
time. Near by are two shields used at the battles 



us from childhood. 



2 2 SKETCHES ABROAD 

of Agincourt and Crecy ; also a two-handed sword 
which was carried at the coronation of Edward 
I. Underneath the seat of the chair, is placed 
the stone on which the kings of Scotland were 
crowned — I need not say it was the most inter- 
esting stone I ever looked at. 

On Friday, we drove for three hours in Hyde 
Park, where we saw a great many of the nobility 
and gentry, among whom we were surprised to 
see so little beauty. The park is very extensive ; 
numbers of ladies and gentlemen were driving to 
and fro in dashing equipages ; the footmen and 
coachmen gayly attired in variously colored small- 
clothes, and wearing crisp little wigs ; equestrians 
of both sexes, mounted on noble animals, trotted 
up and down Rotten Row, and policemen on 
horseback were busily employed keeping the car- 
riages in line, while crowds of admiring gazers 
lounged upon the railing. Judging from the 
gravity with which all these good people bow to 
each other from their carriages, one would sup- 
pose a daily drive in the Park to be very serious 
business. 

We spent one day wandering through Hamp- 
ton Court Palace and enjoying the pictures, of 
which there are hundreds. In the Great Hall, 
used as a theatre during the reign of Elizabeth 






WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 23 

and James I., some of Shakespeare's plays were 
first acted. The walls are hung with arras tap- 
estry, representing scenes from the life of Abra- 
ham, quaint and curious. Among the portraits 
are those of Henry VIII., Cardinal Wolsey, 
Queen Elizabeth, and Jane Seymour, all Lely's 
portraits of the beauties of the court of Charles 
II., and a number of Vandyke's and Kneller's. 
Lely's I thought stiff and affected. Holbein's 
Henry VIII. is full of that intense individuality 
which characterizes all his works. In one room 
is a group of arms of the time of the blood- 
thirsty Harry, while the windows are decorated 
with arms and badges of his wives. Here he 
gave magnificent entertainments to foreign kings 
and nobles. 

The palace is open to the public on certain 
days, and it seemed strange to see, as we did, 
the commonest classes streaming through these 
grand apartments, gaping about in open-mouthed 
wonder and amazement, at the remains of former 
splendor. However, Time respects crowns as 
little as hob-nails ; you might now take all that is 
left of Harry the Eighth — who once made all 
England tremble at his frown — between your 
finger and thumb, and he would only make you 
sneeze at the most ! We passed through room 



24 SKETCHES ABROAD 

after room until we were completely worn out, 
and I found myself sitting down in the great, 
deep window to rest, looking out upon the splen- 
did garden with its fountains, trees, and flowers, 
arranged in the old French style, somewhat stiff 
but very pleasing in effect. While thus resting, I 
could not help thinking of those so famous and 
infamous in history, who had once wandered 
through these stately apartments : of that mon- 
strous historical Bluebeard, the Eighth Henry ; 
of the proud and ambitious Wolsey, who here 
exercised his magnificent hospitality ; of the 
tyrannical bigot Mary ; of the (so called) Good 
Queen Bess, the strong - headed and wrong- 
headed ; of the accomplished Sidney ; the fiery 
and unfortunate Essex, and the intriguing Lei- 
cester. 

Yesterday, Sunday, we attended service at the 
Middle Temple Church in Temple Bar. Close 
by where I stood, were the tombs of five Crusa- 
ders, each bearing its mail-clad figure. I fear 
John Bull has small reverence for departed great- 
ness, as these recumbent wearers of iron shirts 
were made the resting-places of hats and umbrel- 
las belonging to the congregation. As we entered 
the church Lord Brougham passed us on the way 
to his pew ; he seemed aged and infirm, walking 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 25 

with apparent difficulty. After the service was 
over, we looked about the grave-yard in search of 
Oliver Goldsmith's grave, which we at length 
found, bearing the simple inscription, " Here lies 
Oliver Goldsmith," which says more than much 
more could have said. 

I received an order to-day from Sir John Bur- 
goyne, the commanding officer of the Tower, giv- 
ing me permission to visit it, with my party, as 
often as I pleased, with every facility to enable me 
to make drawings — a permission of which, you 
may be sure, I shall very soon avail myself. We 
have been to the famous Dulwich Gallery, where 
there are many fine pictures — some admirable 
Guidos, Murillos, Van Dykes, etc. . . . 

We are often drawn to the window by the droll- 
est scenes of buffoonery going forward in the 
street. Sometimes we are regaled by an exhibi- 
tion of " ground and lofty tumbling " on an out- 
spread carpet, or charmed by a band of wind 
instruments, or a female ballad-singer, with, per- 
haps, a sweet and touching voice to conjure the 
money from our pockets ; now we have a learned 
monkey who discharges a gun with the intrepidity 
of long experience ; at another time the redoubta- 
ble Punch and his life-long associate, Judy, make 
their appearance ; again, a band of Ethiopian 
4 



26 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



minstrels in their 
striped unmentionables 
and " long-tailed blue," 
come upon the scene, 
led by an extraordinary 
figure who has dared 
to appropriate the pro- 
digious nose and pro- 
tuberant paunch of the 
illustrious Punch, and 
with a stand before 
him, beats time upon 
a very .dirty piece of 
music. There is some- 
thing quite foreign in 
all this kind of thing, 
which we hardly expect- 
ed to have seen in the streets of London, but 
supposed to be confined to vivacious Italy. 




rather 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 2J 



Kenilworth, July 27. 
A VOIDING the gay watering-place of Leam- 
^~^ ington, where most travellers stop, we came 
on to Kenilworth and to this quiet inn, called the 
" King's Arms," where we are as comfortable as 
possible. The host and hostess met us at the 
door with bows and courtesies, and sent a neat 
little maid to light us to our apartments, and 
when, after removing our dusty garments, we re- 
turned to our sitting-room, behold ! a delicious 
repast was awaiting us, to which we immediately 
did ample justice. 

As soon as possible the next morning, we hur- 
ried to the castle of the villainous Leicester. We 
ascended the tower called that of Amy Robsart, 
and saw the gate erected for the entrance of Eliz- 
abeth when she was entertained by the Earl. 
Again, the poetry of the place was greatly marred 
by the herds of country people who came shout- 
ing and rushing about in a boisterous manner, 
gaping at me while I was drawing, and sprawling 
about the grass like cattle. There is no sentiment 
in that kind of thing ; to feel these places which 



28 SKETCHES ABROAD 

belong to history, you must be alone and forget 
the present in the past. In our walks through 
the village, we saw several old cottages that stood 
there in Leicester's time ; some of them with R. 
D. and his arms above the door. The surround- 
ing country is beautiful and full of fine u bits " for 
sketches. 

We have just returned from Stratford, where 
we remained all day, visiting Shakespeare's house, 
the church, and the cottage of Anne Hathaway. 
You can imagine with what a strange sensation I 
found myself standing within the room in which 
Shakespeare, the greatest intellect of his age, was 
born. The walls are literally covered with a per- 
fect network of names written with pencils ; the 
woman who exhibits the room pointed out to us 
the name of Sir Walter Scott on the window-sill, 
and that of Edmund Kean on the fire-place. 
From the house we drove to the church to see his 
tomb ; the bust of Shakespeare above it, has been 
restored to its original condition, that is to say, 
colored. While reading the well-known lines — 

" Good friend, for Jesus' sake, forbear," etc., 

a fat, bald-headed Englishman borrowed some 
paper of the very civil sexton, and proceeded to 
copy them, apparently never having heard of 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 29 

them before ! The church is beautifully situated 
on the Avon. . . . 

Continuing our drive to Shottery, we visited 
Anne Hathaway 's cottage, about a mile, I should 
think, from Stratford. It is a simple, low-roofed, 
thatched cottage, with vines creeping up the 
walls ; inside, the ceilings are low — the beams 
black with age. After examining, with interest, 
all the rooms which we were permitted to enter, I 
borrowed a chair from the woman who now occu- 
pies the cottage, and who claims to be a descend- 
ant of the Hathaways, and, seating myself in the 
garden opposite the door through which the 
mighty bard had so often passed to meet his 
Anne, made a sketch which, I am sure, will inter- 
est you much. I forgot to mention an antique 
and curious article of furniture, a sort of high- 
backed bench, which stood inside of the chim- 
ney-place, and is called " Shakespeare's courting- 
chair," where, doubtless, the illustrious dramatist 
had, " many a time and oft," talked soft nonsense 
to " the idol of his eyes and delight of his heart." 
While I was busy with my pencil, the good mat- 
ron gave the ladies some flowers which she gath- 
ered from the quantities in front of the house. As 
we returned, we passed Charlecote, and tried the 
gate which we unfortunately found locked. We 



3° 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



saw the house in the distance, and groups of deer 
under the trees near the road, which trotted off as 
we paused to look at them. 

We were charmed with the fine old village of 
Warwick, the upper stories of its houses project- 
ing over the street, and with its antique gateways 
through which we drove on returning to Kenil- 
worth. 

Returning from the post-office yesterday, I 
stopped to look at the ruins of Kenilworth Ab- 
bey. Very little remains, as you will see by 
the enclosed sketch — only the gateway. 




WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



3' 




Kenilworth, July 31. 
N Friday, we went to Guy's 
Cliff, which is only two or 
three miles from here. Guy's 
Cliff is so called from a 
cave said to have been hol- 
lowed out of the solid rock 
by the redoubtable Guy, 
Earl of Warwick, who, in a 
fit of remorse for having 
slain so many of his fellow- 
creatures, retired to this cave and lived there 
alone for thirty years. In it is to be seen an old 
chest made by Guy out of the trunk of a tree, 
about eight feet long and with three lids, — a very 
rude affair. Near the cave are some cloisters, 
which have stood there for centuries, and have 
also been cut out of the solid rock — the marks 
of the rude tools are quite visible. 

Saturday we devoted to Warwick Castle and 
the town. We were admitted to the lodge by an 
antique portress who showed us, there, some of 
the arms and armor of the mighty Guy, who, she 



32 SKETCHES ABROAD 

said, was nine feet high ! His breast-plate was 
three feet long and thirty-five pounds in weight, 
and might well have belonged to a giant. I could 
scarcely raise his shield with both hands; his 
sword weighed twenty pounds. Guy's porridge 
pot is also there ; this ponderous vessel holds one 
hundred and twenty gallons, and weighs eight 
hundred and three pounds. The ancient maiden 
struck it with his flesh-fork, in order to prove its 
good condition, and it sounded like a great, brass 
bell, almost stunning us. She told us that she 
had seen it thrice filled with punch and emptied, 
on the occasion of the coming of age of the 
present Earl of Warwick. Among other curious 
things shown, was a rib of the dun cow which 
Guy killed at Dunsmore Heath, the pith of her 
horns, and one joint of her spine, etc. 

The road, from the lodge to the castle, is hewn 
out of the solid rock, which time has draped with 
ivy and adorned with flowers, growing wherever 
they can find a foothold. The castle is certainly, 
by far, the finest we have seen, because in a per- 
fect state of repair. It is grand beyond expres- 
sion ; the highest tower is one hundred and sixty- 
four feet, covered with ivy and surrounded with 
lofty trees ; it was quite up to my wildest ideas 
of castellated splendor. The noble apartments of 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 33 

this stately, baronial residence are, most of them, 
rilled with ancient arms, armor, and fine pictures ; 
some of the best Vandykes I have seen. The 
views from the windows are truly beautiful : noble 
trees — cedars brought from Lebanon — sweep 
with their branches a magnificent lawn sloping to 
the banks of the winding river, which is partly 
spanned by the ruins of an ancient bridge. 
Among the suits of armor, I particularly remem- 
ber those of Edward the Black Prince, of Prince 
Rupert, and of the Earl of Montrose; also, a 
helmet worn by Cromwell. Below one of the 
towers, we peeped into a dungeon where Piers 
Gaveston was confined previous to his execu- 
tion. 

In the state bed-room is a bed called " Queen 
Anne's " ; it has never been used or altered since 
she slept in it, when on a visit to the castle. The 
room was used as a retiring-room by Queen Vic- 
toria, who was there some years ago, and the 
toilet-table, arranged for her, stands as she left 
it 



-. 



34 SKETCHES ABROAD 



Rowsley, August 6. 
A FEW hours in the cars brought us from 
^** Kenilworth to this place, where we have 
been staying some days at the " Peacock," a 
charming old inn which was once the Manor 
House of Haddon Hall, and is about four miles 
from Chatsworth. We look from our latticed win- 
dows over a lawn, gay with beds of bright flowers, 
bounded by the River Wye, which flows within a 
short distance of the house. 

The other day, in strolling about the village, 
we stopped at the old church, to look among the 
gravestones for the name of L , whose ances- 
tors, you know, came from this part of Derby- 
shire. While doing so, a girl came from the 
cottage opposite, to show us the interior of the 
church ; and when I asked her if any one of that 
name resided in the neighborhood, she replied, 
" No, sir ; not for many years ; " that the family was 
a very old one, and that, in the church, there was 

the effigy of a crusader called Sir John L , 

which she would show us. I entered immedi- 
ately, to embrace my friend's ancestor, but found 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 35 

him, unfortunately, destitute of nose and decid- 
edly dusty, so I only sketched him, as a delicate 
attention. He was a crusader of the twelfth 
century, and his stone coffin was found in, or 
near, the church some years ago. The ancient 

Gothic church is called St. Helen's. L Hall 

is a large, stone mansion, very old and massive, 

no longer occupied by an L , but by some 

one whose name I have forgotten. I think our 
friend must descend from the Crusader hereafter, 

and like old Mrs. O , forever regret his " Dear 

Sir John ! " Cutting throats was certainly a very 
genteel and honorable business in the Crusaders' 
time, particularly in the Holy Land. 

Haddon Hall we found even more interesting 
than we expected. It stands on a hill, in the midst 
of fine, old trees, with the river flowing at its foot 
and an exquisite country about it ; very like 
Stockbridge in character, though here the hills 
are much higher. The Hall took me back to the 
past more vividly than anything I have yet seen. 
In some of the rooms the furniture and pictures 
still remain, as well as the old tapestry upon the 
walls. In the dining hall, the deers' antlers, 
bleached by time, are yet upon the wall as of 
old, while in the middle of the room stand 
the tables, partly rotted away, with the rude 



36 SKETCHES ABROAD 

benches near them. In the kitchen are the 
ancient chopping-blocks and meat-hooks. The 
ball-room is about seventy feet long, paneled, and 
with deep, bay windows. At the end of this 
extensive apartment, inclosed in a glass case, is a 
plaster cast of the face of Lady Grace Manners, 
taken after death — a lively thing to " forward 
two " to ! From this room, by the door through 
which the fair Dorothy Vernon eloped with her 
lover, Sir John Manners, we entered the garden, 
which, by the way, is a small paradise, with its 
terraced walks and noble trees. 

We wandered through old rooms, up narrow 
staircases in towers, looked through latticed win- 
dows at lovely views, then descended, crossed a 
court-yard and into a vestibule, which we found 
was the entrance to the chapel. Here we sat in 
one of the pews, gazing at the faded colors of the 
stained glass window, which bore the date 1424. 
There stood the ancient font, the work of some 
rude hand, clumsy and ponderous, with its curi- 
ous lid of wood ; there, on either side of the 
chapel, the two family pews, with high railings 
around them, and small reading-desks projecting 
from the front ; to the right, the benches for the 
servants, plain and square-cut as a Puritan ; to 
the left, the pulpit and reading-desk, one above 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



37 



the other. I could easily imagine the haughty 
cavalier, with his long, gray locks and pointed 
beard, his huge, burl boots, and his narrow-bladed 
rapier with its clumsy shell, his aspect stately 
and severe, walking up the chapel with his wife 
upon his arm, followed by his family and retain- 
ers. 

On Sunday, we went to the church in the 




village, and, during service, I took another look 
at " Dear Sir John," whom I found on my right, 
unpleasantly ornamented with sundry sticks and 
hats, one of the latter gracefully reposing upon 
his venerable stomach, which showed a great 
want of respect for the comfort and general 
aspect of our friend's departed ancestor, on the 



3* 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



part of the congregation ! The hat — which 
must be highly indigestible, and with which the 
Crusader must have been afflicted, doubtless, for 
centuries, on Sundays — accounts to me for the 

dyspepsia with which the L family have been 

so long tormented, and which is evidently inher- 
ited from the lamented knight ! As we left, we 
paused to take a last look at his stone coffin, with 
the hope of finding a pinch of his venerated 
dust, — but in vain. 




WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 39 



Canterbury, August 12. 
QINCE I wrote you last, we have visited Hard- 
wick Hall, which was built, during the 
reign of Elizabeth, by the Countess of Shrews- 
bury — the famous " Bess of Hardwick." This 
fine old mansion is, if possible, even more inter- 
esting than Haddon Hall — the antique furniture, 
arms, armor, pictures, all having been preserved, 
are still in their places, so that it looks as if the 
Countess might now inhabit it. In one of the 
rooms there is furniture once used by Mary, 
Queen of Scots, the covers of which were 
embroidered by her and her maidens. It was 
removed from the older mansion, which was 
destroyed by fire, and the ruins of which are still 
standing in the immediate neighborhood — the 
sad remains of what was once the prison of 
the unfortunate Mary Stuart. In the picture 
gallery, a room eighty feet long and twenty-five 
feet high, is a large collection of family portraits, 
from the time of Henry VIII. to Charles II. 
The walls of this room, as well as most of the 
others, are hung with tapestry which falls over 



40 SKETCHES ABROAD 

and completely conceals the doors. The place 
now belongs to the Duke of Devonshire, the 
owner of half a dozen other noble estates. . . 

We reached Canterbury on Saturday, and I 
am writing this in — not the Tabard inn of 
Chaucer, but the Royal Fountain inn. On 
Sunday, we attended service at St. Martin's, the 
oldest church in England, in which St. Paul is 
said to have preached. It is quite small, and, of 
course, covered with ivy. The town is a very 
interesting one ; the streets narrower than those 
of Chester, and filled with as quaint houses. This 
morning, I wandered out in search of subjects for 
my pencil, and found so much that was pictu- 
resque, it was difficult to choose, but finally seated 
myself before a fine old Norman staircase, built 
at the time of the Conquest, and made a large 
sketch from it. The Cathedral is very beautiful, 
and, I should think, the largest that we have seen. 
We visited it this afternoon, and soon found the 
tomb of the Black Prince, with his helmet, shield, 
and gauntlets. The figure, now blackened by 
age, is of brass-gilt, and the best that I have seen, 
thus far, on any of the tombs ; it has been here 
nearly five hundred years. Before we left the 
Cathedral we returned to take a " last, long, lin- 
gering look," telling the woman in charge that 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



41 



we had come three thousand miles to pay our 
respects to him, and were, we thought, entitled to 
a second view. We were taken down to the 
Lady's Chapel in the crypt, which is the oldest 
part of the building, and near which are two very 




ancient and curious tombs of two ladies of rank. 
It was impossible to distinguish the recumbent 
figures upon them, owing to the " dim, religious 
light " by which we saw them. The spot where 
the proud prelate, Thomas k Becket, was mur- 
dered, was also pointed out to us. 



42 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



England is certainly a most interesting coun- 
try, every foot of which seems to have its his- 
tory ; the beauty of the scenery, too, is very 
great. You constantly see old churches, of the 
tenth or twelfth centuries, lifting their venerable 
spires above the trees, entirely unconscious of the 
interest the eager traveller takes in their story. 
Then, too, the quaint, old cottages with their 
thatched roofs, gray in the service of protecting 
those beneath them from the storms of past cen- 
turies, with the ever-present flowers about them, 
and the ivy creeping over them like a green 
mantle. We leave, to-morrow, for the Conti- 
nent. 




WITH PEN AND PENCIL, 



43 




Paris, August 17. 
S I told you, in my last letter, 
we were on our way to 
Paris, which we reached on 
the 1 5th, the birth-day of 
Napoleon, and now always 
kept as a holiday. In the 
morning, we drove about 
the city, and, in the eve- 
ning, went to see the illumi- 
nations and fire-works, 
which were truly magnif- 
icent. The Champs Elysees, for its whole length, 
was festooned with colored lamps, and the Tri- 
umphal Arch was seen glittering in the distance, 
while the fountains in the Place de la Concord 
rose and fell in a blaze of light that made every 
drop, apparently; a jewel. The whole scene 
was one of marvelous beauty, and gay beyond 
description. 

I tugged and pulled J. and D. through a mill- 
ion of excited Frenchmen, J. occasionally and 
modestly airing her French, by asking a gen- 



44 SKETCHES ABROAD 

darme where and when the fire-works were to 
come off, or rather go up. After much blunder- 
ing, we found ourselves in the right direction, and 
were suddenly knocked off our feet by a million 
of French legs running round the corner, accom- 
panied by the explosion of forty thousand can- 
non, a terrible rushing sound in the air, and the 
sky quite on fire. We stood, for half an hour, 
in a perfect blaze of splendor, when the forty 
thousand cannon were all let off at once, while 
fifty million of rockets shot into the air, followed 
by intense darkness, and the million of legs all 
ran back again. It was a most fortunate thing 
we did not reach the bridge over the Seine, to 
which we were directed, as it was filled with 
people at the moment the rockets were thrown 
up, and, in the attempt to clear it by the police, 
many persons were crushed and drowned. 

Paris is certainly worthy of its reputation, far 
surpassing London in beauty and style. The 
streets are wide and the houses are built of a 
light tinted stone, with plenty of color in the bril- 
liant shop-windows of the Boulevards. There is 
life and movement everywhere ; you see, at every 
step, a man or woman singing, or playing upon 
some instrument — head, legs, and arms all going; 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 45 

the drivers of carts, wagons, or carriages, yelling 
at the people to get out of the way; soldiers, 
citizens, foreigners, gensdarmes, hand-organs, and 
monkeys all in a muddle together. 

My profound knowledge of the language of 
these people came handsomely into play, the day 
after our arrival. I rashly attempted to explore, 
alone, the Grand Hotel, at which we are now 
staying, without -our Columbus, guide, and trans- 
lator, B . I descended from our apartment 

on the fourth floor, supposing, idiot-like, that I 
could reach the courtyard unaided. I soon found 
that I was not there. I ascended and descended 
twice more with like success, coming out each 
time in strange and mysterious places. On the 
fourth descent, I encountered a small French boy 
in blue, with bright buttons, standing near a 
door which opened into another courtyard. I 
advanced and observed in a bland, sweet man- 
ner, " I want to go to the other courtyard," sup- 
posing that, if I reached it, I could go up in 
the elevator, which would land me close to my 
room. Minute foreigner answered in unknown 
tongue. " You dont understand English ? " I 
asked. The little boy's face wore a blank 
expression — he merely replied by a shrug of 



4 6 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



the shoulders. I now looked across the court- 
yard and saw an iron gate locked, through which 
I discovered, to my great joy, my courtyard. I 

pointed to it and 
said : " I wish to 
go there? Min- 
ute foreigner an- 
swered in strange 
accents, and, with 
great determina- 
tion of manner, 
pointed upwards. 
I sighed in de- 
spair, and once 
more staggered 
to the stairs and 
mounted for the 
fifth time. On 
the second land- 
ing a stout waiter 
(French) ad- 
vanced with in- 
quiring eye and formal bow. 1 observed, with 
little hope of success : " I want to find room four 
hundred and fourteen." He vanished instantly 
without a reply. I again ascended in wretched- 




WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



47 



ness of spirit, and devoid of hope. On the third 
floor I discovered, in an office, a man who knew 
my mother tongue — God bless him! I plunged 
into my room at once and fell prostrate across a 
table. 




48 SKETCHES ABROAD 



Geneva, August 19. 
\li TE arrived here on Friday, after a hot and 
fatiguing ride, all night, in a crowded train. 
Our companions were an amiable Englishman 
and his wife, one American, and a dirty French 
officer, who thrust a small poodle into his pocket 
every time the guard appeared, as dogs are con- 
traband articles on French railroads. There 
being one seat left, which we wished to retain, we 
ingeniously constructed a drowsy foreigner out of 
a carpet-bag, two shawls, and an umbrella, sur- 
mounted by a cap ; this had the desired effect, 
and we remained free from intrusion for the rest 
of the journey. 

To-day, being Sunday, and consequently a hol- 
iday, the whole place is alive with people. Our 
windows overlook Lake Leman, and I have a 
most lovely view of Mont Blanc in the distance, 
its snow-covered summit flushed with the rays of 
the setting sun. Below me boats are lying at the 
wharf, gayly decorated with flags, while the pass- 
ing steamers occasionally fire a gun, which is 
answered by another on the opposite shore. On 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 49 

the quay, near by, I see the ponderous German 
with his pipe and best suit, lounging heavily 
along; the light Frenchman with cigar and 
poodle; while 'the English and American tourists, 
with unlimited families, stare about them, armed 
with the inevitable Murray. The boats, as well 
as the larger craft here, have the lateen sail, 
which is very graceful, and harmonizes with the 
beauty of the surrounding scenery. 

Yesterday, we took the small steamer up the 
Lake to Chillon, to see the famous castle, a 
distance of fifty miles. The views are grand 
beyond anything you can imagine : on our left 
were lovely hills dotted with villages and green # 
with vineyards, while on our right rose lofty 
mountains, the noble Mont Blanc towering above 
them. The Castle of Chillon is built upon a rock 
which projects into the Lake. An old German 
conducted us through the building and gave 
us its history, with which you are familiar. In 
the dungeon, where Bonnivard was confined for 
six years, we were shown the pillar with the iron 
ring to which he was attached, and the hole in 
front of it, worn, by his feet, in the solid rock ; 
the space over which his chain allowed him to 
move, not being over eight feet. I sat on the 
base of the pillar, and, like a great boy, put my 



5o 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



feet in the foot-prints, — they have been there 
three hundred and thirty years. Near them, on 
another pillar, is Byron's name cut in the stone 
by himself, when on a visit there. Just beyond, is 
another dungeon, crossed by a beam, twelve feet 
above the ground, on which the poor wretches, 
found guilty of political offenses, were hungf 
during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. I 
could see where the rope had, in many places, cut 
into the wood. In another room, was pointed out 
to us a hole from which steps descended into 
darkness. " Observe," said the guide, pointing 
down, " there are but three ; he who was told to 
walk down, found no fourth step, but fell a dis- 
tance of eighty feet into the Lake beneath ! " The 
invention of a fiend ! We saw, also, the apart- 
ments of the Duke and Duchess of Savoy ; they 
are quaint, but unfurnished. . . . 




WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



5' 




Vevay, August 29. 

Y last letter was from Chamo- 
nix, and inclosed a sketch of 
our ascent of the Flegere, 
which I found a very hair- 
erecting process, and which 
we accomplished on the 
backs of mules, with guides 
for the ladies. I brought up 
the rear on a critter that 
looked like an apple on four 
sticks. The tormenting pro- 
pensity these creatures have for walking on the 
outer edge of these mountain passes, is rather 
alarming to the inexperienced. You sometimes 
look down, two thousand feet, over your mule's 
neck, as he turns an angle of the road, into the 
misty depths below. The view we beheld on 
reaching the top of La Flegere was glorious ! It 
embraces the entire chain of Mont Blanc, from 
the Col de Balme to the Glacier des Bossons. Di- 
rectly opposite were the glittering points of the 
Aiguilles Vertes, which rose before us like a 



52 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



mighty vision ; the clouds floating about their 
lofty peaks, now shutting them from our sight, 
and now revealing them, with a strange phospho- 




rescent light playing upon their snow-clad sum- 
mits, which were dazzling in their splendor. 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 53 

Our next visit was to the Montanvert. After 
reaching the top, or rather the point from which 
it is usual to descend to the Mer de Glace, we left 
our mules, and crossed the famous Glacier, where, 
though surrounded by snow and ice, the heat was 
so great that I was glad to throw off my coat, and 
walk, staff in hand, without it. After crossing, 
we crept along the Mauvais Pas — a fearfully 
narrow ledge of rock — like flies, till we came to 
a chalet, where we stopped half an hour for 
refreshment. Soon after leaving the chalet, we 
remounted our mules, which had been brought 
by a boy to this point During our absence 
from the village of Chamonix, a dreadful accident 
had taken place. Three young Englishmen, who 
had ascended Mont Blanc, on the day previous, 
without guides, in descending, fell a distance of 
three hundred feet — they had all been tied 
together by a rope attached to the waist. One 
of them was instantly killed, and the others ter- 
ribly bruised. The dead body lay all day and 
night on the mountain. I saw it distinctly 
through a glass, where it seemed but a speck 
upon the snow. Eight guides were sent to aid 
the sufferers, and all the people of the village 
seemed to sympathize with the unfortunate adven- 
turers. 



54 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



We went by the 
pass of the Tete 
Noire to Vernayaz, 
stopping for the 
night at the Hotel 
de la Cascade, in 
view of a charm- 
ing waterfall. The 
manner of bed- 
making in these 
inns, is quite pecu- 
liar. Here we 
found, for the first 
time, the German 
arrangement of two 
beds for each per- 
son, and on retir- 
ing at night, slipped into them like a bit of ham 
between two slices of bread, and reappeared in 
the morning, head first, like cautious turtles. 
After leaving this pleasant little inn, we passed 
through a country which was picturesque and 
romantic in the highest degree. We were quite 
charmed by the rude shrines which stood by the 
wayside, particularly by one placed upon a bridge 
spanning a foaming cascade which plunged a 
thousand feet into the wooded vale below. 




WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



55 



Upon reaching Vernayaz, we took leave of our 
obliging guides, and my apple on four sticks, 




who had been my companion during all our 
pleasant excursions in this neighborhood, — and 
took the cars for Vevay, where we intend to 
remain several days. The Hotel Monnet is a 
large, handsome house, and is filled with people, 
chiefly Americans. Three times a week we 
have a band which plays during dinner, and again 
for dancing in the evening. We were fortunate 
in securing apartments overlooking the lake, as I 
can sit at my window and sketch the opposite 
shore, which is extremely beautiful. 



56 SKETCHES ABROAD 



Meiringen, September 9. 
IV 71* Y last letter was from Vevay, and, as we 
A have been ever since moving, either on 
horse or mule-back, I have had but little opportu- 
nity of writing until to-day. We have ascended 
and descended, partly on foot and partly on horse- 
back, mountains ten thousand feet high ; at one 
time wading ankle deep in snow. J. and D. were 
assisted by the guides on foot, it being too steep 
for the horses ; in fact, they were often compelled 
to sit down and rest, finding the violent exertion, 
of struggling against both wind and snow, quite 
too much for them. I do not think that we shall 
attempt a snow-peak again, it is so fatiguing. In 
some places, we passed over a path barely three 
feet wide, with a descent on one side of from two 
to three thousand feet, which produced a rigidity 
of muscles and stiffness of hair which was decid- 
edly unpleasant! A slip of the foot would have 
made pap of us for Swiss babies in an instant ! 

From Vevay to Sion we went by rail, but so 
slowly, we were able to enjoy the beautiful scen- 
ery by which we were surrounded, the quaint 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. S7 

towers and curiously-dressed people. At Sion, 
we hired an open carriage, in which we travelled 
to Visp. As we left the town, the sun was sink- 
ing slowly in the west, and the view, as we looked 
back, was most beautiful and picturesque. On 
two hills, in the centre of the town, were two 
ancient castles of the Middle Ages, rising high 
against the glowing heavens, the sun's rays pass- 
ing through their battered and crumbling walls, 
and the town below lost in the deep shadows cast 
by their towering forms. 

On our way, we overtook a friend of our driver 
— a merry Dutchman — who mounted the box, 
with our permission, and went with us for some 
miles. During his stay, he regaled us with some 
of the national airs, which he howled in the most 
atrocious manner, " making night hideous." On 
leaving us, he insisted upon our tasting his wine, 
a keg of which he carried in his arms. Finding 
it useless to deny him, as he still persisted in 
offering it, we each took a draught at the bung- 
hole, the generous Dutchman giving the same 
a graceful wipe with his shirt-sleeve, as he passed 
it from one to the other. We laughed so heartily 
we could scarcely get it down, but it made him 
happy, and he went on his way rejoicing. 

We passed the night in a dismal inn near a 



58 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



pretty chalet, of which I send you a sketch. In 
the morning, took horses and guides for Zermatt, 




where we remained three days, ascended to the 
Rififelberg and Gorner Grat, returned to Visp, and 
found the driver, who had brought us from Sion, 
hovering about the inn, hoping that we would 
reengage him, which we did, and so journeyed 
on through the lovely Rhone Valley, to the 
Glacier which is the source of the river Rhone. 
Everywhere in the fields, we saw women busily at 
work, making hay and carrying enormous loads 
of it to the barns, being really treated as beasts 
of burden, for horses are rarely used by the farm- 
ers. The villages are extremely filthy, and the 
women villainously ugly ; nearly all who are over 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



59 



forty years of age, are afflicted with the goitre, 
which increases 
their charms, — 
many of them, 
too, are idiotic. 
English or Amer- 
icans are contin- 
ually turning up 
on the road, — the 
Englishman gen- 
erally on foot, 
with knapsack on 
his back and an 
Alpine stock in 
his hand — some- 
times accompa- 
nied by ladies. 

At the Rhone 
Glacier we again 
mounted horses, 
and proceeded by 

the Grimsel Pass (a Grim-sell we found it!) to 
this place, where, in a most comfortable hotel, we 
are resting for a few days. We passed the night 
before last at a wretched half-way house, where 
the fleas were so thick that," after I had turned in, 
I fancied myself a pincushion into which some 




6o 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



one was sticking pins in various patterns and on 
both sides, occasionally varying the composition 
and doing it all over again! Meiringen, where 
we now are, lies in a valley surrounded with 
wooded mountains and overshadowed by snowy 
peaks. There is, apparently, no outlet from the 
valley, and on all sides we see fine cascades leap- 
ing down precipices, or gushing from some half- 
hidden gorge. Occasionally they illuminate the 
Falls of Reichenbach with colored lights, which 
has a remarkably beautiful effect 







WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 6 1 



Munich, October 2. 
A FEW days ago, we finished Switzerland, 
^^ having visited many places of interest; 
among them, the celebrated Baths of Pfeffers, a 
most remarkable and beautiful gorge, through 
which a stream flows from springs of hot water. 
On our way to this place, while passing through 
the valley of the Rhine below Lake Constance, 
we saw many of those ruined castles of which 
merely a tower or two remains, they having been 
destroyed by the peasants, who, no longer able to 
bear the oppression of their owners, the " barons 
bold," drove out or killed them, and pulled their 
strongholds to pieces. One of these ruins, the 
Castle of Wartau, was particularly impressive and 
fine, as I saw it, at twilight, on the side of a lofty 
mountain, cutting gloomily and sharp against the 
fading horizon. Of course each of these ruins 
has its legend ; one was pointed "out to us as hav- 
ing once been occupied by a Huguenot, who was 
in France during the frightful massacre of St. 
Bartholomew, but succeeded in escaping to his 
castle on the Rhine, where he was met by his 



62 SKETCHES ABROAD 

nephew, who, for some reason, murdered him. 
Having been persecuted on account of his re- 
ligion, he was regarded as a saint, and his 
embalmed body is still shown in a neighboring 
church. 

From Ragatz we drove to Coire, to visit an 
ancient cathedral, where, among many singular 
relics, we saw the skulls of St. Lucius and St. 
Martin, — of the first and second centuries, — with 
jeweled crowns upon them and precious stones 
in the sockets of the eyes ! Also, an autograph 
of St. Carlo Borromeo, and a crystal crucifix, with 
the figure in silver, said to have been presented 
by him. The oldest part of the building dates 
as far back as the eighth century, and is very 
curious. Besides this cathedral and the Episco- 
pal Palace, there is nothing else to interest the 
traveller in this little town. We returned to 
Ragatz late in the afternoon, and all combined to 
make it a drive long to be remembered ; the 
beautiful valley with the hills crowned by ruined 
castles, on one side of us thrown out in broad 
relief against the evening sky tinged with the 
glowing rays of the setting sun, and on the other, 
half lost in the deep-gathering shadows of twi- 
light ; while groups of peasants following their 
tired teams as they returned from labor in the 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



fields, added all that was necessary to complete 
the picture. 

We are now in Munich at the Englischer Hof. 
The buildings, both public and private, are ex- 
tremely handsome ; the streets broad, clean, and, 
just now, full of military men, — the officers the 
finest looking and most gentlemanly body of men 
I ever saw. 

On Sunday morning, we went to the Cathedral 
to hear military mass, and, although the music 
was very fine, the crowd was so great we were 

glad to leave, having 
stood until we were 
tired. At one of the 
altars we saw this 
priest, who was mak- 
ing the most grotesque 
contortions of face as 
he prayed, without, ap- 
parently, uttering the 
slightest sound. On 
our way out, we stopped 
in a side chapel, which 
contained the bones of all the saints, — - if you be- 
lieve the inscriptions written thereon, — adorned 
with jewels and artificial flowers, or set in cases 
of gold and mother-of-pearl. Whilst we were ex- 




6 4 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



amining this wonderful collection, men, women, 
and children of all classes were coming and going, 
prostrating themselves before the image of the 
Virgin, or kneeling at the door with their rosaries, 




as if not worthy to approach nearer ; one, a 
peasant of the rudest type, completely awed by 
the wonderful things he saw around him, crept 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 65 

slowly about, looking to the right and left in 
wonder and amazement. 

On Monday we visited the Glyptothek, a splen- 
did building erected by King Ludwig in 1816, for 
an art gallery, to contain the works of both 
ancient and modern sculptors. We saw there 
some of the finest antiques, the Sleeping Fawn 
and Silenus and Bacchus, etc. 

In the old Pinacothek, — which is filled with 
the works of the Old Masters, — I passed many 
delightful hours. One large room is hung with 
Rubens' works alone. These fine productions 
show his great mastery in color and composi- 
tion, perhaps, more than any other collection of 
his pictures in Europe. His " Falling Angels " is 
a marvelous work, and his portraits are painted 
with great force and freedom. Here are, also, a 
number of Rembrandts, with many pictures of the 
earliest German and Italian painters, — a perfect 
herd of Saints and Madonnas, with the usual 
golden plate attached to the back of the head. 
The quaint and curious efforts of these Pre- 
Raphaelite artists, — the darlings of Ruskin and 
his followers, — are certainly most extraordinary ! 
Figures frozen in eternal prayer or adoration, 
and clothed in draperies of tin ; forms meagre 
and wretched, scattered over the canvas like 



66 SKETCHES ABROAD 

tombstones in a churchyard, and quite as depress- 
ing ; puppets stopped, by an unexpected hitch in 
their wires, in half-expressed action, with a back- 
ground composed of a castle or other ancient 
edifice, and trees of a most toy-like and innocent 
design, all scrambling into the foreground, regard- 
less of perspective, and perching upon the shoul- 
ders or head of some worthy saint, who seems to 
be quite unconscious of the fact. Some of the 
heads do, indeed, possess a certain purity and 
earnestness of expression, and it cannot be denied 
that a few of their works display an effect of 
color which is pleasing. These men were great 
in their day, because there was no better art then 
existing. They were the sincere and earnest pio- 
neers of that higher art, which rose in all its 
power and magnificence in the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries, — works that astonished 
and delighted their own and all succeeding gen- 
erations, such as those of Titian, Veronese, Van- 
dyke, and Rembrandt ; pictures composed in the 
highest style of art, splendid in color, grand and 
comprehensive in design. To assert that the 
works of the Pre-Raphaelites are equal to those 
of the men I have mentioned, is simply prepos- 
terous, and like claiming for the inventor of the 
tea-kettle a creative genius as great as that of 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



6 7 



Watt, who, from the hint it gave him, produced 



the steam-engine. 



It is surprising to see the use made of dogs in 
Germany. They are not allowed to idle about, 
but are obliged to work hard. They are attached 
to small carts with a harness like that on the 



,\^>, 




horses, and are frequently assisted by women, 
who here, as in Switzerland, seem to do the 
heaviest work. 

We have been to the new Pinacothek, where 
only the works of the modern German artists are 



6S 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



to be seen, with the exception of a few, one of 
which, Wilkie's " Reading the Will," struck me as 
the best in the whole collection. It is beautiful in 
every respect, and will hold its own anywhere, 
while the works of the Germans fell below my ex- 
pectations, being poor in color and painted in a 
smooth and feeble style, which seems but boy's 
work after Rubens. In design they are forcible and 
often fine, particularly the works of Kaulbach, 
who is, perhaps, the finest composer of the day. 




WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 69 




Nuremberg, October 6. 
E have been some days enjoy- 
ing this most curious and 
interesting city. We came 
in the slow train from Mu- 
nich, which, though exceed- 
ingly tedious, gave me a 
chance of sketching a few 
of the peculiar costumes, as 
we passed along. I com- 
menced with an official at 
the Munich station, who was quite distingue in 
appearance, and very courteous in manner. At 
Augsburg, there were several peasants dressed, 
evidently, in their very peculiar " best," for a jour- 
ney, while all along the road, we saw men work- 
ing in the fields in picturesque attire — small- 
clothes and cocked hats ; also a boy in the same 
style of dress, driving a flock of geese with a 
whip. These, and many other interesting groups, 
kept us constantly on the qui vive. 

I have been making a drawing, from my win- 
dow, of an old tower and a bridge over which, in 



7o 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



former times, prisoners were taken to execution, 
and which was, for that reason, called " The 
Bridge of Death." Mr. Wheeler, our Consul 

-here, very kindly took 
us to the oldest parts 
of the city, and showed 
us the interior of one 
or two old palaces ; 
also, some dungeons 
below the city walls, in 
which were shown 
various instruments of 
torture used as late as 
the early part of the 
present century. The 
most detestable among 
them, was the Jung- 
frau, a female figure 
made of iron having a 
hollow body, which 
opened in the middle 
so as to admit the person to be executed. The 
inside of this infernal machine is covered with 
long, sharp, iron spikes, so arranged as to enter 
gradually the vital parts of the unfortunate wretch 
within, who thus died, by inches, a most frightful 
death. In one apartment of the old castle is col- 




WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 7 1 

lected an endless variety of the most extraordinary 
and fiendish inventions you can conceive. I 
was particularly interested in a number of two- 
handed swords used for beheading ; among them, 
that of the public executioner of Nuremberg, 
which had decapitated three hundred persons ; 
we also saw the books in which all the executions 
have been recorded from the year 1575. One of 
the most frightful things in this gallery of hor- 
rors, was the head of a woman who had been 
executed for child-murder, — somewhere about 
the year 1702, I think, — the record of whose 
punishment was pointed out to us by the guide. 
An iron spike was driven through the head, to 
the scalp of which, the hair still clung ! 

In one of the most public parts of the city, 
stands a fine bronze statue of Albert Durer, the 
" Evangelist of Art," who here lived and labored ; 
his house, also, is not far distant, as well as that 
of Hans Sachs, the "cobbler bard." We saw in 
the fine church of St. Lawrence, the 

, . . " Pix of sculpture rare, 
Like the foamy sheaf of fountains, rising through the painted 
air." 

Whichever way we turned, we were constantly 
reminded of Longfellow's beautiful poem, and 



72 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



I need not add, quoted it on every occasion. I 
will finish this letter with a sketch of the curious, 
conical-roofed towers of the city walls, whose 
singular architecture I think will interest you. 




WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



73 



^M 




INCE 



Baden Baden, October 21, 
my last letters, we have 



passed through Frankfort and 
Heidelberg, stopping a day or 
two at each. Frankfort is a beau- 
tiful city ; we saw there the house 
from the window of which Lu- 
ther addressed the people before 
his journey to Worms. It is de- 
lightful to see the respect the 
people of Europe have for their 
great men who have made their 
cities famous : everywhere you 
see statues, of bronze or marble, 
erected to them in the principal 
streets ; in Nuremberg, a fine one to Albert Dur- 
er ; in Munich, one to Schiller ; in Frankfort, one 
to Schiller, and another to Goethe ; while on the 
front of houses once occupied by eminent per- 
sons, inscriptions are placed, recording the fact, 
together with the dates of their births and deaths. 
I fear it will be a long time before we shall arrive 
at this degree of civilization. The driver of your 



74 SKETCHES ABROAD 

carriage points out to you, with pride, the house 
where such a famous poet, painter, or man of sci- 
ence lived ; everything that once belonged to 
them is preserved and shown. 

From Frankfort we went to Heidelberg, and 
put up at the Prince Charles Hotel, where, as 
soon as I reached my room, I looked from my 
window for the famous castle, and there it stood 
grandly appearing above the housetops, on a high 
hill behind the city. Soon after our arrival, we 
took a carriage, and drove along the banks of the 
Neckar, to the celebrated ruins, but drove first to 
the Molkencur, which is a short distance just 
above the castle, for a higher point of view. This 
is a small-public house, situated on an eminence 
overlooking the valley for a great distance. Un- 
der the trees about the house, were placed seats 
for the accommodation of visitors, who were 
always expected to partake either of German 
beer or goats' milk whey ; we chose the former, 
and, whilst enjoying it, feasted our eyes on the 
exquisite view which lay beneath us. The girl 
who waited upon us was a beauty, and spoke 
English with a most delicious accent. In the 
sitting-room, she showed me a number of balls 
and exploded shells, which had been thrown into 
the castle during the Thirty Years' War. We 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 75 

then descended to the castle, and drove through 
the grand entrance, the sharp teeth of the port- 
cullis suspended above us. The building covers 
a large extent of ground ; the oldest part was 
built in the twelfth century, and the last additions 
were made in the sixteenth. It is a magnificent 
pile, and, while wandering through its many an- 
tique apartments, we stopped in one vast, under- 
ground room, which contained several suits of 
armor, old and battered swords, — one, two-hand- 
ed, eaten away by rust, — bits, spurs, cross-bows ; 
also farming implements, all of a past age ; they 
had been picked up, at various times, in and about 
the castle. The gloom of this ancient, vaulted 
apartment, with the groups of arms and armor 
indistinctly seen, as they stood or hung against 
the wall, taken in connection with the fame and 
history of the place, was most impressive, and 
moved me like a symphony of Beethoven. The 
girl next took us to the chapel, which contained 
a crucifix, altar, and stained glass windows ; in 
the centre stands a bronze statue of some early 
Elector; then to the cellar, where is kept the 
Great Heidelberg Tun, which, in olden time, held 
sixty thousand gallons of wine ; near it, against 
the wall, leans the figure of Perkeo, court-jester to 
the Elector, Charles Philip, — a very ugly fellow, 



7 6 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



with a nose like a crab's claw. Our last visit was 
to the Terrace, where we had a splendid view of 
the River Neckar and town below, with a bit of 
the Rhine in the distance. To give you an idea 
of the immense strength of the castle, the walls, 
in the oldest part, are twenty feet thick. 




A fair was being held in the town, and the 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 77 

street, in front of our hotel, was filled with booths 
and long strings of market-women, standing along 
the curbstone, selling butter, eggs, etc. I saw one 
old woman with a live goose under her arm, with 
its unlucky head looking out behind in a wretched 
and melancholy manner; he was tough, poor 
devil, for nobody bid for him. In one of the 
booths, I saw a man taking a photograph of a 
ponderous Dutch girl with a "pleasant expres- 
sion " ; in another, two " Natives of Borneo " in 
very light drapery, the woman dancing and the 
man flourishing a club as big as his own body, 
etc. Punch and Judy were also on exhibition, 
with those remarkable jerks in their backs and 
legs for which that venerable couple have always 
been distinguished. I saw only a few of the stu- 
dents, who wear small caps of different colors, to 
designate the different clubs to which they belong. 
The university is a large building, with nothing 
remarkable in its appearance. 

The next morning, we started for Baden Baden, 
— one of the watering-places of Europe, — and 
reached it at noon. The season being nearly 
over, there were very few at the hotel ; in fact, the 
town was nearly deserted. In the afternoon, we 
drove to the Castle of Hohen-Baden, and in the 
evening, wandered out in search of the famous 



7 8 SKETCHES ABROAD 

gambling-house or Kursaal, where everybody goes 
of high and low degree, though, of course, all do 
not gamble. We were attracted by hearing 
sounds of music issuing from a large building, 
into which people were passing. Supposing it a 
concert, and, being full of the spirit of adventure, 
we also entered, and were quite surprised to find 
no charge made. Whilst we were listening to the 
music, we observed several persons passing quietly 
into a room at the back of the one in which we 
were seated, whereupon I suggested to the Pro- 
fessor that we might explore, and found, as I ex- 
pected, the gambling going on in the said apart- 
ment, the music evidently being the bait for the 
hook beyond. The game was " Rouge et Noir," 
and round a long table sat, close together, men 
and women betting on the red and black ; four 
bankers sat in the middle, two on each side, rak- 
ing the money in or out, as luck changed. Piles 
of gold and silver were in front of them ; there 
was no talking, — all was quiet. Behind those at 
table stood many more, one of whom would oc- 
casionally bet. A man in front of me lost, in five 
minutes, a very large sum of money, and a girl — 
a lady — all she had with her. A large propor- 
tion of those at the tables, were old ladies of sixty 
or seventy years of age. Nobody blew his or her 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL 



79 



brains out, or cut his or her throat, — there was 
nothing dramatic ; some faces wore an intense 
and earnest expression, but no one spoke ; the 
only instance of distress I saw, was that of a 
young girl, alone in a side-room, in a rather wilted 
condition, sitting doubled up upon a chair, — 
poor thing ! she, no doubt, could have told a sad 
story. 

The city is a very beautiful one, with fine walks 
and drives in and about it. To-day, though Sun- 
day, many of the shops are open, and a fine band 
of music is playing, in front of the Kursaal, the 
most profane of operatic airs. If it be a crime to 
have music of this character on Sunday, all 
Europe will certainly go to the d 1, for Sun- 
day is here the liveliest of days. 




8o SKETCHES ABROAD 



Amsterdam, October 29. 
A FTER leaving Baden Baden, we went to 
^~^ Strasburg, and the next morning, walked to 
the famous Cathedral, which is within a short 
distance from our hotel. We were a little disap- 
pointed, and found it less interesting than many 
of those in England. The astronomical clock is 
a most remarkable effort of mechanical genius, 
but, as Murray describes it, I shall say no more. 

After seeing the Cathedral, we went to the 
Church of St. Thomas, built in the eleventh cen- 
tury, and while there, were shown two bodies, a 
Count of Nassau-Saarbrucken, and his daughter, 
who had died two hundred and fifty years ago, 
and were " still in their habits as they lived ; " the 
lady in a rich blue silk and lace, with artificial 
flowers on her head, a bit of evergreen in her belt, 
and rings on her fingers. The grinning skull, the 
hands still covered with the muscles, and the 
parchment-like skin, were disgusting, though in- 
teresting. The Count was in a much better state 
of preservation, and was not much changed, con- 
sidering the great age of the body. He wore a 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 8 1 

coat of brown cloth, with long stockings, high- 
heeled shoes, and buff gloves or gauntlets, reach- 
ing to his elbows. The bodies are placed in boxes 
covered with glass. 

After leaving Strasburg, we travelled to May- 
ence, where we passed the night, and the next 
morning took the boat, to go down the far-famed 
Rhine. The day was lovely, and the trip one of 
the most interesting we have had. We were quite 
charmed with the picturesque towns, and castle 
after castle, on both sides of the river. There was 
the " Mouse Tower " of Bishop Hatto, of which 
I made a sketch, and another of the Castle of 
Ehrenfels, just above it. Then Rhinestein on the 
left, and the Castles of the Two Brothers beyond, 
with twenty more besides. 

In the middle of the river, built upon a rock, 
stands Pfalzgrafenstein (devilish tough word that), 
a very singular building, of an early date. Here 
I made another sketch, — a flying shot, — and 
bagged but little of it, as the boat moved too 
rapidly. 

About three o'clock we had a nice dinner, 
served to us on deck, and two friends, whom we 
met on board, helped us to dispatch it. 

As evening approached, the moon rose, and its 
"splendor fell on castle walls," the Drachenfels 



82 SKETCHES ABROAD 

being the most conspicuous. Think of seeing 
the Rhine by moonlight ! 

We reached Cologne about nine o'clock in the 
evening, and went on the next day, to the Cathe- 
dral, which we found looking rather unfinished, — 
you know it never has been finished, — having 
only one small spire in the middle. As we ap- 
proached it, we were beset on all sides by guides, 
who wanted us to engage them to show us the 
city. One fellow kept following us, and turning 
up suddenly in the most unexpected places, com- 
ing down in price at each reappearance. We told 
him we would place him in the hands of the 
police, if he showed himself again, after which, he 
vanished. 

In the Church of St. Ursula, we saw the bones 
of the eleven thousand virgins, ingeniously ar- 
ranged round the walls in all sorts of devices, and 
covered with glass. 

Our next stopping-place was Dusseldorf, where 
we saw a number of pictures of the present Ger- 
man school, some of which are excellent. We 
stayed but a day at Dusseldorf, then went by rail 
to Amsterdam, which is certainly a very singular 
old town, most of the streets having a canal run- 
ning through the middle, as, of course, you know. 

I have seen but few of the heavy, broad-backed 
Dutchmen of whom Irving speaks. Some of the 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



83 



women have very singular head-dresses, and the 
fishermen are queerly rigged in baggy breeches, 
reaching only to the knee, and stove-pipe hats — 
the combination producing a perfectly absurd 
effect. The natives seem to think us quite as 
amusing as we do them, following us and watch- 
ing every movement. 
This morning, we 
visited several galler- 
ies, all of which con- 
tained more or less 
admirable pictures, 
which we enjoyed 
hugely, but have not 
now time to specify. 
We were very much 
amused, in one room, 
with an artist who 
was busily engaged 
in making a copy 
of a small Dutch 
picture. It appeared 
to be an immense 
effort for him, as, while 

putting in the finer touches, he seemed to balance 
himself with his tongue, which protruded from 
his mouth like that of a boy taking his first lesson 
in writing. 




84 



SKETCHES ABROAD 




Antwerp, November 4. 
EFORE leaving Amsterdam, I 
paid a visit to ,the Museum, 
where there are some of the 
finest works of the Dutch 
painters ; among them, Rem- 
brandt's " Night Watch," 
which I thought not equal to 
some others of his. At a 
private house, we saw a fine 
collection of the same school, 
where, in one room, there was 
a splendid head by him. 

From Amsterdam, we went to the Hague, 
which is much more modern in character than I 
expected to have found it. There is little that is 
picturesque about it, — the houses having a fresh 
and comparatively new look, — but much that is 
interesting in the way of pictures, which are of 
the highest excellence. Rembrandt's " Professor 
Tulp lecturing over a dead body to his pupils," is 
a wonderful work for color and truth ; the head 
of the Professor is inimitable. Paul Potter's 







W/ 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 85 

" Bull " is also there, but did not strike me as 
equal to its reputation ; wanting effect and hav- 
ing a dry and bald look. 

There are grand heads by Vandyke and Ru- 
bens, and some excellent small pictures, by the 
Dutch masters, whose subjects are often disgust- 
ing, but their art, splendid, their power of imita- 
tion marvelous, and their color perfect. 

The country is as flat as a board, and cut up 
by canals and ditches, on the borders of which 
stand innumerable windmills, looking like jolly 
Dutchmen throwing their arms about, after im- 
bibing much Schnapps, I made a sketch of one 
of these fellows, who had stopped his nonsense, 
and held up his hands in astonishment at the 
process of taking his portrait. 

After six hours of hard travelling by cars and 
steamboat, we found ourselves in Antwerp, where 
we looked for another picture-feast. 

Yesterday we paid our first visit to the Church 
of St. Jacques, to see the tomb of Rubens, and 
the picture, painted by him, which hangs above it. 
It is, I think, one of the finest of his works, very 
beautiful in color, and much the most refined in 
character. 

The Church is one of the most elaborately 
ornamented I have seen, filled with statues and 



86 SKETCHES ABROAD 

pictures, many of the latter by Vandyke. While 
in the Church, we were shown the pew which Ru- 
bens formerly occupied, and of course, we all im- 
mediately sat in it, one after the other, like chil- 
dren taking a bite off the same apple. 

In the square near by, stands his statue in 
bronze, and in another street, one of Vandyke, in 
marble, both excellent. 

This morning after service, I went to the Cathe- 
dral to see the greatest of all Rubens' works, 
" The Descent from the Cross " and " The Eleva- 
tion of the Cross." The first is all I expected, 
a grand work; the color rich and subdued, and 
painted with great force and effect. The last, 
rather extravagant in drawing ; the head of Christ 
noble in expression ; to-morrow I shall go to see 
it again. The Cathedral is quite near, and I 
hear, at this moment, its great bell tolling. It 
has a chime of ninety-nine bells, which is rung, 
every quarter of an hour, both day and night. I 
have been making, from my window, sketches of 
the people in the streets, as they stopped to talk, 
or lounged about : soldiers, porters, market-women, 
all in singular costumes. The chimes have just 
commenced again ; they sound like a great mu- 
sical box, and have a very beautiful tone. . . 

At the Museum, which contains a collection of 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



87 



the Old Masters, we saw an artist making a copy 
of one of Rubens' pictures with his foot! — in 




this way — holding his brush between his toes, 
having been born without arms. His copy was 
admirable and painted with great freedom. I was 



88. 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



told that he writes a beautiful hand, or rather, 
foot. In one of the rooms, is the chair of Rubens, 
also his bust in wood. The house of the illustri- 
ous master is shown to visitors and is large and 
very handsome. He evidently possessed and en- 
joyed the luxuries of life. Many of the houses 
are quite old and curious, and have the crow-foot 
gables peculiar to the Dutch and Flemish towns. 




WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 89 



Paris, November 12. 
\A7"E are again in Paris, which we reached last 
night about ten o'clock. My last letter to 
you was from Antwerp ; since then we have been 
in Ghent, Bruges, and Brussels. At Ghent, we 
visited the Cathedral of St. Bavon, which contains 
some works of the inexhaustible Rubens, who 
turns up everywhere, with his sledge-hammer 
saints in red and blue, — little refinenlent, much 
muscle, but great beauty of color. We also heard 
vespers in the Church of the Beguinage, which is 
a cluster of small convents, containing about 
seven hundred nuns. When we entered, we 
found the good sisters on their knees, while the 
priests were chanting in the chancel. There was 
but little light in the church, and the effect of the 
nuns in their black and white dresses, all motion- 
less, with their heads bowed in prayer, fading 
away into the gloomy background of the quaint 
old building, was strange and ghost-like. During 
the service; some of the nuns rose, took the white 
mantle from their heads, folded it up, and placed 
it on the top of their heads, somewhat after the 



90 SKETCHES ABROAD 

manner of the Italian peasantry, then threw the 
skirt of their gowns over all, knelt a moment be- 
fore each altar as they passed, and moved slowly 
out, perhaps, on some errand of mercy, for such is 
their principal occupation. The next morning, 
we drove about the city, and stopped to admire 
and sketch an ancient gate-way, the people stand- 
ing round the carriage, gaping and curious. 

Bruges we found more interesting, being much 
the oldest of the Flemish towns. There we saw 
the famous belfry, with its beautiful chimes, the 
Palace of Justice, and the Hotel de Ville, rich 
and fine in design, but crumbling away, like old 
cheese, from the effects of time. In the Church 
of Notre Dame, are the magnificent tombs — 
copper-gilt — of the Duke of Burgundy and his 
daughter. He was in full armor, and she in her 
robes of state, both lying upon their backs with 
hands together in prayer — the action of all the 
figures on the tombs of the Middle Ages. In the 
open square in front of the Palace of Justice, I 
saw a fine old tower, of which I made a drawing. 
The costumes of the people here, are less curious 
than those of Amsterdam and the Hague ; the 
beggars and guides quite as annoying. The side- 
walks are so narrow in many places, that when 
you meet any one either he or you must step off, 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 9 1 

in order to pass. The odors are somewhat start- 
ling in all these towns — quite foreign and not at 
all American. 

There is a great charm in these old cities that 
constantly brings " Froissart's Chronicles " to your 
memory. I should like every house to be of the 
twelfth century at least, with the people in the 
queer, old costumes of the time. Occasionally, a 
few knights appearing suddenly round the corner, 
followed by others charging them from the rear 
with their long lances, or smiting them with mace 
or battle-axe ; the people, meanwhile, pegging 
away at them with cross-bows, from the windows 
of the houses, or ornamenting them, from the 
roofs, with hot pitch. Here, a gallant knight on 
foot, attacked by numbers, cutting down a man 
with each sweep of his two-handed sword ; there, 
another unhorsed and on his back, his foe above 
him brandishing the " dagger of mercy," as he 
cries, " Rescue, or no rescue ! yield to a true 
Knight ! " The fluttering banners, the party 
cries, the men-at-arms fighting and cutting at 
each other, now lost in a cloud of dust, now re- 
appearing as they retreat or rally down the street ! 
This sort of thing frequently occurred in these 
very streets, and I should very much like to see it 
done all over again for the benefit of travel- 



92 SKETCHES ABROAD 

lers — from the top of the highest chimney ! The 
modern improvements which you find even here, 
the jumble of old and new, keep your mind in a 
see-saw condition. After looking at a building of 
the ninth or tenth century, and dreaming of the 
past, then turning and seeing a cake-shop finished 
last Friday, with a row of gingerbread-twins in 
the window, the mind falls flat on its back into 
the commonplace and practical of to-day. 

Brussels is more like Paris, light and glittering, 
with a new appearance ; there is, however, some- 
thing there which is deeply interesting ; I mean 
the Hotel de Ville, in front of which the Counts 
Egmont and Van Horn were executed ; their 
statues stand on the spot. Behind these figures, 
is the house occupied by the Duke of Alva and 
the window from which he saw those unfortunate 
noblemen beheaded. The houses built by the 
Spaniards are still standing, and are very hand- 
some 



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K.,^R 



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^Mfati 



II IS I' 1 Kl 




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WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



93 



Paris, November 18. 
\ li TE are now perched up in the third story of 
a French boarding-house in the Champs 
Elysees, — one of the finest streets in Paris, — 
where may be seen, every afternoon, everybody 
who can hire, beg, borrow, or steal a horse or car- 
riage. Its broad 
sidewalks, shaded 
with trees under 
which are placed 
chairs for the ac- 
commodation of 
the public, are the 
resort of innume- 
rable loungers. I 
make it my walk 
every afternoon, 
and never leave it 
by turning a corner, 
having no bump of 
locality and less 
French. I think of 
engaging a stout 
French nurse who knows English as well as Paris, 




94 SKETCHES ABROAD 

and would act as a guide through this extraordi- 
nary city. 

By a rare stroke of good fortune, I one day 
blundered into the Louvre, where I, of course, 
enjoyed the pictures prodigiously. After spend- 
ing several hours there, I only managed to see 
about one fourth of this immense collection, which 
I hope to revisit frequently before we leave. It 
appeared to me, the gallery, as a whole, was not 
equal to that of Dresden, though there are many 
fine pictures by the best of the old masters. The 
Murillo, for which the government gave $150,000, 
is a beautiful work, and better than anything I 
have seen by him. " The Entombment of Christ," 
by Titian, is there; a glorious picture it is, and 
finely conceived ; the effect of the figures, partly 
obscured in the solemn twilight, harmonizing 
beautifully with the sentiment of the subject. 
Some of Titian's portraits have intense individu- 
ality, and seem to think. "The Man with the 
Glove " is remarkable in this respect. Rubens is 
there in full force ; Vandyke also, and as admi- 
rable as ever. " Charles I.," standing by his horse, 
is one of the finest works he has there. The 
figure of Charles is, as usual, elegant, and " every 
inch a king ! " 

I saw an immense number of artists of both 
sexes copying ; in fact, nearly all the best pictures 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 95 

had somebody in front of them, — either on a lad- 
der or platform, — spoiling much canvas. 

The other night, we went to see a piece called 
" The Frenchman in London," a union of ballet 
and farce. It was, of course, extremely French, 
particularly in the matter of draperies, which 
were uncommonly short as well as light. It was 
a very capital affair, and well managed through- 
out ; the scenery and costumes splendid and very 
effective, putting all other things of the kind that 
I have seen, quite in the background. During 
the performance, several of the actors, in costume, 
came round in front and sat in a box next to the 
stage ; while another one suddenly appeared in the 
third tier, and held a conversation with those in 
the box on the opposite side of the theatre, which 
produced immense fun. Not being aware that 
this was a part of the play, I was rather sur- 
prised ! 

On Friday, we went to the Luxembourg, the 
interior of which is very magnificent. The room 
once used by Marie de Medici is still as it was in 
her day ; the ceiling painted by Rubens and other 
artists of her time. The Throne-room of 'Napo- 
leon I. is truly regal. The Picture Gallery con- 
tains some of the best of the modern French 
school ; among them, Couture 's " Decadence de 
Rome " and Muller's " Conciergerie." .... 



96 SKETCHES ABROAD 



Paris, December 17. 
T WENT, one day, with a friend, to the Hotel 
^ Cluny and the Ecole des Beaux Arts, which 
contains that fine composition by Delaroche, 
" The Hemicycle." The Hotel Cluny is, by far, 
the most interesting place we have seen here. 
The oldest part was built by the Romans, in the 
fourth century, and the more modern, in the thir- 
teenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth. We found it 
filled with an immense variety of things ; such as 
old arms, armor, furniture, china, and works of art 
of many periods and countries, most of which 
are rare and curious; also, mantelpieces of the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which are very 
rich and beautiful in design. There are several 
carriages belonging to different crowned heads 
of Europe ; clothes too, worn by celebrated men, 
— a cap that once belonged to Charles V., a lace 
collar worn by Henry IV., etc., etc. 

It may seem strange to say that there is but 
little to interest in Paris, as it is to-day ; but the 
fact is, Louis Napoleon has caused to be pulled 
down and built up, so much of the city, in his 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 97 

great desire to improve it, that it now contains 
less to remind you of the past, perhaps, than any 
other city of its size, in Europe. In this, I am 
sure, all lovers of antiquity will agree with me. I 
say, with " Leatherstocking," " D n your bet- 
terments." The little German town of Nuremburg 
is worth a dozen of this great city in point of in- 
terest and picturesque beauty, and possesses a 
strong flavor of the past, that is charming ; mak- 
ing you feel while walking in its streets, as if you 
were living in the Middle Ages. Here everything 
reminds you of to-day, and to-day only; it is 
shop, not history. The effect of the city is very 
brilliant and painfully new — New York on a 
grand scale. You look in vain for those fine old 
mouldering " bits? like Kenilworth or Heidelberg 
Castle, etc. In all this vast city there are but two 
or three buildings remaining that remind you of 
past ages, and even those have been so changed 
and modernized, as to leave little to interest you. 
I saw last week the tomb of Napoleon, which, in 
design, is simple and impressive ; we should have 
felt its solemnity more, had it not been for the 
sharp elbows of the bustling crowd about us. 

On Thursday evening, we went to a reception 
at the American Minister's, where we found the 
house filled with Americans. Dore, the artist, 
13 



9 8 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



was also there ; a remarkably mild looking young 
man of thirty, or thereabout, — his face exhibiting 
no indication of the vigorous genius for which his 
works are so remarkable. There, we also met 

Bulwer, whose abundant 
hair, prominent nose, and 
excess of beard and mous- 
tache, suggested Mephis- 
tophiles. As he came into 
the room only a minute 
before we left it, I had no 
opportunity of hearing the 
great man talk. He stood, 
with his hat in his hand be- 
hind him, so close to the 
fire, that I was much con- 
cerned, and expected some one would have been 
obliged to put him out. His elevated brows and 
staring eyes conveyed the idea of a man who had 
been taken by surprise when he was born, and 
never gotten over it. 

One evening we had an entertainment at the 
house here, given by a fellow-boarder, and com- 
posed of a mixture of French, English, and 
Americans — thus : one live count and countess, 
three decorated Frenchmen, several flimsy young 
ladies with a proper proportion of young gentle- 




o> 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 99 

men, three Americans, and a couple of Scotch 
ladies. The flimsy young ladies and young gen- 
tlemen danced, while the count nursed his hat 
upon his knee, and the decorated leaned upon the 
corners of the mantelpiece, the Americans look- 
ing on as side-dishes, modestly admiring. The 
refreshments were composed of warm water and 
wine (mixed), with feeble cakes of unknown com- 
position, very small and served rarely. The 
music, a cracked piano, banged to death by a 
thin Frenchman. The nobility retired with dig- 
nity, at an early hour, and the mobility at half-past 
twelve. 

I have been to the Louvre several times, and 
strayed about those great rooms till my back 
cracked. Your mind becomes so much interested 
in looking at all those grand works of art, that 
you entirely forget that you are not made of iron, 
till you find yourself suddenly doubled up like an 
empty sack, and are disgusted to feel that you 
can't stand it better. Among the pictures, are 
some of Guido's best productions. His compo- 
sition is often fine, but his color crude and un- 
pleasant. His " Rape of Dejanira " is to me, in 
all respects, the best, as well as most poetic, of 
his works ; the figure of the Centaur, admirable 
both in character and drawing, while the attitude 

LofC. 



IOO SKETCHES ABROAD 

and expression of Dejanira are exquisitely beau- 
tiful. Here, too, are a number of Rubens' largest 
and most elaborate pictures, showing his immense 
power in composition and color. He was a great 
genius without a sense of beauty of form or 
poetic sentiment ; he painted the animal, not 
the intellectual, man ; brawn, not brain, was his 
motto ; he delighted in flesh and blood. His 
groups of nymphs and satyrs at their revels, are 
his greatest triumphs — a reeling, staggering 
mass of delicious color, drunk with its own 
beauty. 

In Rembrandt you see the same peculiarity. 
His forms are of the lowest type and clothed 
with splendor and richness of color, but obscured 
by such tremendous depth and mystery of shad- 
ow, that his pictures sometimes become grand 
poems, elevated by the singular genius of the 
painter. 

The " Marriage at Cana," by Veronese, is a 
miracle of Venetian art, covering a canvas of 
thirty feet in length with a success never before 
achieved on so grand a scale ; still, this is little 
more than a picture of effect and color — a large 
group of figures, in gorgeous costumes, at a 
banquet in brilliant sunlight. 

My last visit was to the antique sculpture, 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. IOI 

where I particularly enjoyed that noble fragment, 
the " Venus de Milo " — to my mind the grandest 
ideal of woman ever conceived, but not, I think, 
at all suggestive of the Goddess of love and 
beauty. The form is too massive — a type of the 
highest and fullest development — majestic, not 
loveable. 

Last night, I went, with some friends, to the 
Grand Bal Masque at the Opera House, the 
parquette of which was floored over for the oc- 
casion, and filled with a crowd of people in ex- 
traordinary costumes of every description. There 
was a band of two hundred musicians playing at 
the extreme back of the stage. Thousands of 
people were dancing like fiends, at the same 
moment, each one trying to appear and act as 
absurdly as possible ; the women all masked, and 
many of them kicking as high as their heads, 
which seemed to be a favorite performance. It 
is hardly necessary to say, that these were of the 
lowest class ; the ladies do not leave the boxes. 
The whole exhibition was both ridiculous and dis- 
gusting, and would not have been tolerated in 
the United States — certainly not in an opera 
house. 



T02 



SKETCHES ABROAD 




Genoa, December 25. 
iE are not, you see, in Rome 
as we expected to be, but 
in Genoa, the venerable 
and dirty. On our way 
hither, we stopped one 
day at Marseilles and an- 
other at Nice, which is a 
pleasant and cheerful town, 
with a fine, soft climate, 
truly refreshing after the 
gloomy skies of Paris. Soon after our arrival 
we went out for a stroll. Of course the ladies 
could not resist the mania of their sex — shop- 
ping — although just from Paris, where you 
would suppose they might have had a surfeit; 
and would suddenly disappear from my side, 
plunge into a shop, and as suddenly reappear 
with a remarkable hat having a button in the 
centre instead of a crown, or a bit of inlaid wood- 
work or some other curiosity of the town. The 
place seemed full of invalids walking about un- 
der white umbrellas. When strolling through 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



103 



the market-place, we saw some odd, old women 
with peculiar, circular hats ; and a pair of sleepy 
mules on intimate terms with a brace of hens, 
who were pecking about their heels in a con- 




fidential and friendly way ; these, including an 
ancient female and child, I rapidly transferred 
to my sketch-book. Part of our promenade was 
on the roofs of the houses, which are, in that 
part of the city, as flat as a floor; from whence 
we had a glorious view of the ocean ! 

At the hotel, we met with a very pleasant 



104 SKETCHES ABROAD 

American family, with whom we made arrange- 
ments to take a carriage and drive by the Cor- 
niche road, which runs the whole way, to Genoa, 
along the shores of the Mediterranean. The next 
morning, we started ; our party consisting of six, 
with the addition of a courier and a vetturino. 
The " courier " was a superb creature of the stout 
and plethoric order ; he had whiskers, he had 
moustache, he had studs in his shirt, brilliant and 
beautiful ; cuff-buttons beyond praise. He was 
perfumed, he was new from end to end ; — in fact, 
he was finished at all points and perfect in every- 
thing — but his business. 

The drive was highly interesting, and in some 
places the scenery grand ; immense rocks rising 
hundreds of feet from the water's edge, often 
crowned by an ancient tower. Below us, on the 
beach, we could see the picturesque fishermen 
with their red caps and sashes, making a haul or 
mending their nets ; the ocean stretching away to 
the right, dotted here and there with a snowy 
sail. We constantly passed through groves of 
olive-trees, the people collecting the fruit from 
the ground. Sometimes an over-loaded donkey 
would pass us, with his panniers of firewood or 
vegetables and fruit, the driver sitting above all ; 
or we would see the shepherd in his coat of skins 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 105 

and rough leggings, watching, from the rocks 
above, his sheep nibbling the short grass. 

Beggars were not wanting, of course, particu- 
larly when we stopped at the inn to dine. The 
villages are extremely dirty and very odd look- 
ing ; in some places we could just get through 
the narrow streets without touching the walls 
on either side. The houses are three or four 
stories high — the windows often but a square 
hole, from which smoke issued, there being no 
other outlet for it. At some of the doors a few 
cabbages and carrots, or, perhaps, a basket of 
apples ; at others, pig's skins, filled with wine, sus- 
pended by the tails, apparently squealing to be let 
down. Here, a group of gloomy vagabonds, their 
shoulders to the wall, with some crawling infants 
in the mud, while a lop-eared mule tied to a post 
balances the composition ; there, a brown friar, 
scanning his missal from beneath his cowl, passes 
silently through the lazy crowd — his sandaled 
feet, cat-like, giving no warning of his presence. 
Dirt and strong smells are everywhere apparent. 
Our vetturino, anxious to make a sensation, as he 
entered the towns cracking his whip, would force 
his horses to a gallop and scatter the good people 
like chaff. Old women scuttled round the corner ; 
dirty children were seized in the rear and jerked 
14 



I06 SKETCHES ABROAD 

backward into doorways, while once, a young girl 
flattened herself against the wall to escape the 
hub of the wheel, which carried off a yard of 
apron. Heads bobbed out of doors and windows, 
and small dogs snapped and barked at the wheels, 
while rags of all colors fluttered in the air. 

Out again upon the road, with the sea still on 
our right, and the boats hauled up on the shore ; 
more donkeys with their drivers yelling, and push- 
ing them to the right, in order to get out of the 
way. Beggars hobbling after, showering bless- 
ings on all the family, for the money they ex- 
pected to get, sleek priests and hooded monks 
passing, and gazing at us in pious wonder, as we 
drove on, covering them with dust. As we ap- 
proached some of the larger towns, we met women 
covered with veils, which gave them a pretty, 
modest look. 

In the village of Cogoletto, we were shown the 
house in which Columbus was born, and a very 
forlorn, shabby looking place it is, with its back to 
the beach and its front on the filthy street. I 
stopped close by it, to make a sketch of some 
mules, with a crowd of people about me, to see 
how I did it. As soon as the owner of the ani- 
mals discovered what I was about, he drove them 
off, and left me staring at a blank wall and several 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 107 

small boys. In one town, we stopped to dine in 
an ancient palace on a dinner of birds tasting of 
turpentine, sour bread, and flat wine. The din- 
ing-room was about twenty feet high, with an 
arched ceiling and stone floor; some of the old 
family portraits were still hanging upon the walls. 
While waiting for the feast, we wandered through 
the old chambers, many of which were richly 
ornamented with gilding, and quite elegant. 

Genoa is surrounded with ancient fortifications, 
and filled with many palaces and much dirt ; the 
streets — some so narrow that you might nearly 
touch both sides by extending your arms — are 
crowded with citizens, soldiers, and sailors. Many 
of the shops are like curious little dens, dug in 
below the street and as contracted as possible, 
in which the birds of prey lie in wait for the un- 
wary traveller. Some have shrines of the Madon- 
na over the door, their tawdry frames surrounded 
by gilded rays, and the Virgin evidently in the 
last stages of consumption. In the street of the 
goldsmiths, there is, however, one — an oil picture 
of much merit — which is considered so valuable 
that it is enclosed in a glass case and an armed 
guard paces continually in front of it on occasions 
like this, when, it being a Festa, the whole popu- 



108 SKETCHES ABROAD 

lation give themselves up to idleness and amuse- 
ment. 

We visited several palaces and saw some good 
pictures, but none, I thought, of the highest 
excellence. It was strange to see the ancient, 
shriveled officials in the great, dreary, and un- 
comfortable apartments, shivering over a brazier 
of half-extinguished coals in the corner, as if that 
was the business of their lives and nothing else, 
as they paid no attention to us apparently. 

Last night, we all went to the Cathedral of San 
Lorenzo, to hear high mass at midnight. The 
building was grand and gloomy, with priests 
chanting at one end, and a crowd of people 
filling the whole. As soon as high mass began, 
the chanting ceased, and above our heads in the 
organ-loft a number of stringed and wind instru- 
ments discoursed most eloquent music ; about us, 
much garlic' and little piety, with strong odor of 
tobacco. 

To-day, being Christmas, we were treated to a 
roasted turkey stuffed with chestnuts, and plum- 
pudding for dessert, in honor of the Americans 
and English in the house. I knowjy^ had better 
at home ; ours was a melancholy failure. We 
thought of you all and drank your healths, sitting 
in a house constructed by the Knights of Malta ; 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



log 



a queer old place built upon arches, under which 
runs a passage-way for pedestrians. The day 
after to-morrow, we start again with the coach 
and five for Spezzia, from thence to Pisa, and 
from Pisa to Rome ! 



l> , «r- > \ 




1 1 SKETCHES ABR OAD 



Pisa, December 30. 
HP HE scene shifts again, and we are in another 
of the strange, old Italian towns, which is 
much cleaner than the last we left. Here are the 
famous Leaning Tower, the Cathedral, the Bap- 
tistery, and the Campo Santo. The River Arno 
runs directly in front of the hotel, and on the 
opposite shore is a pretty little Gothic chapel 
built for the benefit of the sailors, many hundred 
years ago. The Cathedral, which we visited yes- 
terday, is of the twelfth century, and truly mag- 
nificent. I went with L to see it a^ain, this 

afternoon, and sat watching the priests preparing 
for the service, each one dropping upon his knees 
before some image or picture of a saint, as he 
moved through the vast building ; some of them, 
dressed in scarlet and white, others, in black and 
white. It was very picturesque and fine, as we 
saw it all in the fading light of the afternoon, and 
would have been finer, if these worthies had gone 
about their duties with less of a business air, and 
more earnestness ; they trotted about and rattled 
through their prayers more like school-boys 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 1 1 

anxious to get out to top and marbles, than men 
of piety. Some ragged little urchins who seemed 
desirous of a dip into the holy-water font, which 
was too high for their short legs to reach, made 
several jumps and plunges at its edge, and at last 
succeeded in dipping their very dirty hands and 
crossing their foreheads like good catholics, as 
no doubt they were. 

While we were looking about us, the sacristan, 
who evidently had a strong turn for trade, though 
it was Sunday, came smiling and bowing to us, 
informing us that he had some very fine photo- 
graphs of the city and its buildings, if we felt 
inclined to buy. 

Yesterday, we went into the Baptistery, which is 
another lovely bit of antiquity, of the same period 
as the Cathedral, and stands quite near it. While 
we were there, an infant, two days old, was brought 
in by its father for baptism ; the poor little wretch 
looked like a scalded monkey, which had already 
gone to the other world — the wrong one. The 
priest held it, face down, over the font, and ladled 
out the precious liquid over its unfortunate head, 
to convey, I suppose, to its feeble mind, an idea 
of the Deluge ; he then dabbed it and rubbed it 
well down with a napkin, mumbled rapidly some- 
thing over it, which sounded like the buzzing of 



112 SKETCHES ABROAD 

moral bees, dropped it into its father's arms, and 
made a note of all in a dirty book. Before we 
left, a man with a very good voice told us we 
must hear the echo, which is very remarkable 
there ; he then sang two or three notes, the effect 
of which was perfectly exquisite, as the sound 
passed from one part of the building to another 
and gradually floated away in waves of music. 
Another individual, who had followed us into the 
Cathedral as a sort of guide, said that he always 
did the echo, but did not like to when a priest 
was present. 

The Leaning Tower, which is close by, has, as 
you know, a very singular effect, and seems to be 
falling, while you are looking at it. They tell you 
the foundation has settled on one side, and that it 
was not, as some writers suppose, the intention of 
the architect to build it as it now appears. The 
Campo Santo is a very long building, formed of 
arcades surrounding an open court which is filled 
with earth brought, many centuries ago, from the 
Holy Land ; in this enclosure many noble fami- 
lies are interred. The arcades are' filled with 
fragments of sculpture, principally of old Roman 
origin, as well as of the Middle Ages. The walls 
are adorned with frescos, the work of some of 
the most distinguished pre-Raphaelites, but are 
very much injured by time. 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



"3 



Some men are at this moment passing the 
hotel, singing in chorus a beautiful thing from an 
opera. As we listen, their pleasant voices fade 
gradually upon the ear and pass into the night, 
seeming to complete the strange, poetic charm 
which, to me, surrounds these ancient cities. 




114 



SKETCHES ABROAD 




Rome, January 6, 1867. 
ERE we are, at last, in the 
Eternal City, which we 
reached last Tuesday even- 
ing, after travelling a day 
and a night from Florence. 
At Florence, we only spent 
a few hours waiting for the 
train to Rome, which left at 
nine o'clock in the evening. 
While there, we attempted 
a drive in an open carriage, 
but were soon driven within doors by the rain. 
When it cleared, we took a walk on the Ponte 
Vecchio, which is filled with curious old shops, 
chiefly in the breastpin and ring line of the past, 
as well as the present, day. The variety of people, 
carts, carriages, and donkeys, that passed and re- 
passed us in wild disorder ; the beggars, the mud, 
the rags, the street-cries, and the screams and 
yells of the mule drivers, in not very choice 
Italian, are beyond description. As we intend 
to return to Florence in a few weeks, I shall 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 1 5 

say nothing more of the city, as we only saw what 
I have described. 

On the road to Rome there was nothing unlike 
what we had seen before. Dirty little villages 
clustering around a dirty church in the centre, 
like sheep around their shepherd ; most of these 
perched up high among the rocks or prominent 
points, sometimes surrounded by an ancient and 
massive wall. We reached Rome about sunset, 
and the most prominent object as we approached 
the city, was the great dome of St. Peter's rising 
grandly above the horizon with a red belt of light, 
left by the departing sun, behind it. The next 
morning, our first visit was to the mighty church, 
which somewhat disappointed us in approaching 
it, — we only fully realized its vast proportions 
after we had entered its doors* — then, we felt as 
grains of sand upon the shore. The interior 
seems to me a little overloaded with ornament 
and small forms, as well as variety of color, 
the effect of which destroys the idea of space 
and simplicity; but nearly all Roman Catholic 
churches have this defect. 

After looking about us for some time, we 
ascended to the roof, on which is built a number 
of houses for the accommodation of the work- 
men employed to keep it in repair, amounting to 



Il6 SKETCHES ABROAD 

two hundred men — the expenses yearly are about 
$50,000. The next thing to be looked at was 
the Ball, which will hold sixteen people. After 
ascending an endless, winding, stone staircase be- 
tween the walls, we reached the middle of the 
Dome, and stood upon a gallery which runs 
around the whole. As I looked down upon the 
marble pavement, nearly four hundred feet below 
me, I saw some black dots moving about, which, 
they told me, w T ere people. Several men were 
employed mending the mosaic-work, some bits of 
which had fallen out of the leg of one of Angelo's 
sprawling infants (about twelve feet high), and, as 
a matter of course, a few found their way into our 
pockets. Again we ascended more steps, still 
more, and at last reached a small circular room 
with a perpendicular ladder of wood which led us 
up to the iron Ball, where we found it as hot as 
August. We consequently, got out of it as soon 
as possible, and, after examining the body of the 
church, again returned to the roof, from which we 
had a splendid view of the city and the surround- 
ing country for many miles. There were the 
snowy peaks of the Apennines, the Campagna, 
and, endless remains of Old Rome in every 
direction. 

Afterwards, we drove to the Palace of the 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL, 1 1 7 

Caesars — an enormous mass of ruins covering 
thirty-five acres ; the workmen were engaged in 
excavating while we were there ; the whole of it 
was once below the Rome of to-day. Near it, 
numbers of fragments of figures, busts, and pot- 
tery are shown, all of which have been found 
among the ruins, and were once ornaments of the 
palace. 

The next object of interest was the Coliseum, 
passing, on our way thither, under the Arch of 
Titus, and by that of Constantine. You may 
form some idea of the enormous size of the build- 
ing, when you are told that it held 87,000 per- 
sons ! 

There is a sense of power and dignity in these 
noble, yet melancholy remains of this stupendous 
structure, that no other ruins possess. Its vast 
and shattered walls stand as a monument of the 
grandeur as well as the brutal tastes of the iron 
race that erected it. 

In the centre of the arena, stands a wooden 
cross, painted brown and resting upon three 
square blocks of granite, like steps. Any one who 
kisses this cross as he passes through, has in- 
dulgence granted him for one hundred days. 
About five feet from the base, it is black from the 
kisses it has received since its erection. While I 



1 1 8 SKE TCHES ABR OAD 

was looking at it, from the seat called Caesar's, 
I saw a very gentlemanly looking man walk 
gravely up, remove his hat with reverence, and 
kiss it, followed by three or four men of the lower 
order, who did the same. I suppose they soon 
after fell to picking pockets with an easy con- 
science. 

Within a few yards of our hotel, are the 
church and the Spanish steps spoken of by 
Dickens, in his " Pictures of Italy," as being the 
resort of the " artists' models." I walked up there 
a few days ago, and found any number of " Holy 
Families" and " Saints " — great " lumps of them," 
as he says — waiting to be hired. While sitting 
on the steps to rest and watch the people, a Ro- 
man woman with her' little child passed me, in her 
picturesque dress of scarlet and blue. By using a 
little pantomime, I gave her to understand that I 
wished to make a sketch of her. She took the 
hint at once and stood, a few steps below me, 
in the act of knitting, with her child at her feet. 
I began my drawing, and was immediately sur- 
rounded by a crowd, as usual. You constantly 
meet these " models " basking in the sun on the 
sidewalks; some doing the decayed nobleman 
leaning against the corner of a house, with a rag 
of a cloak thrown grandly over the shoulder, and 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



119 



a melancholy eye cast at you from under the edge 
of a battered, greasy hat. Then the beggars ! 
with legs and without, some only the stump of a 
man, — the gentlemanly beggars, and the monks 
who are beggars, — there is no end to them ; they 
swarm in every street and prey upon you ; in fact, 
all Italy seems but an open hand waiting for 
change ! 




120 SKETCHES ABROAD 



Rome, January 13. 

OINCE my last, we have been out " doing 
^ Rome " every day, with the exception of the 
wet ones, which have been, lately, very numerous. 
One morning, we went to the Church of Ara 
Cceli, where was lying, in state, the " Holy Bam- 
bino." There was a procession to-day, and cere- 
monies attending the reconsignment to its box, 
wherein it will be kept under lock and key, until 
next Christmas-day. The lock can be opened, 
however, at any time, with a silver franc. The 
" Bambino " is a doll representing our Saviour as 
an infant. The tradition is, that a holy monk 
carved it out of a piece of wood from one of the 
trees in the Garden of Olives, and that St. Luke 
painted the face ! It is dressed in swaddling- 
clothes, covered, apparently, with precious stones, 
and with a jeweled crown upon its head. All the 
real stones have been removed by the priests, and 
imitation ones have taken their place. One of 
the chapels was fitted up like the stage of a 
theatre, representing the inside of the stable, with 
two cows' heads rising above the Bambino, Mary 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 2 1 

and Joseph in attitudes on either side, and a few 
other figures, all of the size of life. Above, were 
painted clouds, where, among crowds of angels, 
sat a somewhat magnificent figure of God, ex- 
tending his hands over the group below. The 
whole was lighted with gas, and was quite effect- 
ive as a tableau, before which the deluded Ro- 
manists were kneeling in devout adoration and 
awe. 

From there, we went in search of the Tarpeian 
Rock, which we found in a neglected garden, 
and so surrounded with houses, there was not 
much left to convey to our minds the horror of 
the victims who were once hurled from it into the 
abyss below. Then to the Basilica of St. John 
Lateran, where the Popes are crowned, and where 
we saw a piece of board about five feet long and 
two wide, purporting to be a portion of the table 
from off which the Lord's Supper was eaten, and 
were told that behind certain curtains was some 
of the blood and water which flowed from the 
Saviour's side ! Near this church is the Santa 
Scala, up which we saw the devotees going on 
their knees ; an act of devotion which gives them 
many years of indulgences, and, I believe, saves 
them from Purgatory ! 

We have been three times to the Vatican, and 

16 



122 SKETCHES ABROAD 

once to the Capitol, both of which contain splen- 
did collections of antique statues in bronze and 
marble. Prominent among these in the former, 
are the Apollo, Laocoon, and that grand frag- 
ment, the Torso, besides an immense collection 
of other figures, busts, and monuments, many of 
them of a high order of art. The rooms are 
thirteen thousand in number, — some of them 
enormous. Most of the statues were found in a 
shattered condition, and have been put together 
with great care, some parts restored. The first 
room we entered, contained inscriptions taken 
from the tombs of the early Christians and 
Pagans ; these are all set into the wall. One 
room is devoted to animals in marbles and 
bronze, some of which are capital, but not equal 
to the human figures, the best of which are, I 
think, beyond all praise, — the very perfection of 
form. 

Our second visit was to the Sistine Chapel, 
where the frescos of Angelo and his " Last Judg- 
ment " — which covers the whole end of the 
room — are, of course, the greatest features. 
They have all been dreadfully injured by damp 
and smoke, so that it is impossible to make out 
much of the composition. In front of the " Judg- 
ment," they have placed a huge pulpit, which 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 23 

covers nearly a fourth of it. The ceiling, which 
contains, I think, the best of the frescos, is 
covered with great blotches of black, from leaks 
on the roof, while other parts are much faded and 
obscure in color. The color I found much better 
than I was led to suppose, the figures painted 
with boldness and freedom ; some very grand, 
others extravagant. The composition of the 
" Creation of Adam," with his figure rising from 
the earth in its first consciousness of existence — 
brought to life by a touch of the Creator, who 
floats above him — is, perhaps, the sublimest con- 
ception in the whole range of art. Some of the 
prophets have a certain heaviness of form and 
want of high intellectual expression, which does 
not convey the idea of men acting under a 
mighty inspiration. The figure of Jonah is an 
exception, and is worthy of the tremendous 
genius of its author. The " Last Judgment " is 
more like a composition of detached groups than 
a grand whole illustrating a single idea; and 
wanting broad masses of light and shadow, it 
fails, I think, to make the impression it otherwise 
would. Had it been treated in this latter respect 
as Rembrandt would have treated it, the effect 
upon the mind would have been increased ten- 
fold. 



124 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



In the Picture Gallery are the world-renowned 
" Transfiguration " by Raphael, and the " Com- 
munion of St. Jerome," by Domenichino, two 
pictures of the highest order of art, but which, 
nevertheless, did not give me that intense gratifi- 
cation that many other works of the great masters 
have done. 

We have passed a morning at the Capitol, sev- 
eral rooms of which are filled with statues by 
the mighty Greeks. The " Dying Gladiator " is 
among these, and the finest, I thought, of all, — 
full of truth and exquisite feeling. I was also 
delighted with the " Fawn of Praxiteles," which is 
a most charming figure 




WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 2 



Rome, January 18. 

\^7E are now living in apartments very com- 
fortably ; indeed it is almost like being at 
home. We have a servant, who, unfortunately, 
speaks only Italian, which is decidedly tough for 

all of us. J sometimes plunges suddenly 

into the parlor for the Italian dictionary, to look 
up " boiled potatoes," " hot water," " soup," etc., 
and dashes as suddenly back again to give orders 
for the preparation of the same. Our maid's 
name is Carmina Pasquiloni, and a model servant 
she is, faithful, honest, and untiring in her de- 
votion to our interests. The weather has been 
so bad since last I wrote, that we have not been 
out much : one day, however, we drove on the 
Pincian Hill, from which we had a fine view 
of the city and its innumerable churches and 
strangely narrow streets. Yesterday, we went to 
see donkeys and horses blessed by the Pope, in 
front of the church of San Antonio, which cere- 
mony, unfortunately, we did not see, as it was de- 
ferred until later in the day, on account of the 
rain. In the church there was a very pretty effect 



126 SKETCHES ABROAD 

of light and color : the whole building was 
richly draped in red, white, and blue ; the priests 
in vestments of gold, white, and crimson, kneel- 
ing before the altar, chanting; while the people 
— ragged and greasy — were doing the same in 
the body of the church, the pavement of which 
was strewn with evergreens. The candles burn- 
ing upon the altar, were dimly seen through the 
smoke of the incense, which filled the place like 
a fog. 

As we left the church, men, on each side of the 
entrance, rattled charity-boxes in our ears, while 
the beggars hobbled after us, some holding up 
the stump of an arm, and others rapping their 
chins, to indicate that their stomachs wanted 
filling at our expense. 

I visited the Capitol again to see the Picture 
Gallery, which contains a few good pictures — a 
fine head of Velasquez, by himself, one or two 
Vandykes, and a large altar-piece by Guercino, 
which is a work of great power. While standing 
before it, a very plain, old man, in a gray overcoat 
and felt hat, very much bent in the back and 
feeble in the limbs, came up with one of the 
officials (dressed in cocked hat and buttons), of 
whom the venerable man in gray asked many 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 27 

questions.' We afterwards learned that this aged 
gentleman was no less a personage than the King 
of Bavaria. As he passed out, he smiled blandly 

at D , and nodded. On our way home, we 

stopped at the Barberini Palace, where we found 
a small collection of pictures, among them, the 
Beatrice Cenci, which has bewitched the world for 
two centuries. I regret to say, her fascinations 
were lost upon us, — the face struck me as nothing 
more than that of a pretty woman with a slightly 
sad expression, having none of the exquisite 
beauty we expected to find. Next to it, hangs 
the famous Fornarina of Raphael, which has 
neither beauty of form nor color, at least it so 
struck me ; how it gained its great reputation, I 
cannot imagine. There is a good head of a Car- 
dinal, by Titian, which is, stupidly, hung nearly 
out of sight. 

This morning, in a pouring rain, we started for 
St. Peters, to see the " Festival of St. Peter's 
Chair," which was quite as good as an opera. 
After the ladies — all dressed in black and veiled 
— had ta*ken their seats on benches within an en- 
closure, I took my place at the base of a slippery 
column, on which I tried to rest, but came near 
measuring my length on the floor, three times, 



128 SKETCHES ABROAD 

while waiting for the curtain to rise. Presently is 
heard a flourish of trumpets. Soldiers enter and 
march up the body of the Church, with music. 
Soldiers form on both sides of the Church. 
Priests now appear with many tall candles, fol- 
lowed by cardinals, their robes- held up by four 
priests each. In the distance approaches the 
Pope seated in a chair, borne on the shoulders of 
men in red — his poor head wagging about under 
a triple crown blazing with jewels. Directly be- 
hind him, are carried two immense fans of white 
peacocks' tails, which suggest the idea of his 
Holiness being in very high feather, on the occa- 
sion. As he passes, the whole body of soldiers 
and people drop on their knees, which is very 
effective, as well as painful to the public leg. 
The Pope is next carried to a raised platform at 
the extreme end of the church, and placed on a 
throne, when the cardinals range themselves on 
either side of his Holiness, and go through many 
extraordinary performances ; kissing his toe, pull- 
ing off his mitre, and replacing it with another of 
a different kind (this was done several times), 
drawing aside his robes, seeming to say, " Gentle- 
men, there is no deception here, we assure you, 
it s the genuine article and no humbug ; he 's 
quite alive ; these are his own, precious, holy legs, 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



129 



body and all." After the ceremony was over, the 
Pope was again hoisted into the chair, the feathers 
spread, and the whole concern — his rickety 
Holiness, red cardinals, sleek priests, and Pope's 
Guard — all moved out together, the soldiers and 
people falling on their knees as before ; I also, — 
but not on my knees, — as he passed out of the 
Church. As a theatrical performance, it was a 
beautiful exhibition, but as a religious ceremony, 
by no means impressive. 

17 




130 



SKETCHES ABROAD 




Naples, January 26. 
■) APLES is the most active, 
all-alive city we have seen, 
as well as the most filthy; 
a rushing, roaring place, 
everybody in a hurry, and 
every other man a beggar ; 
there is nothing like it in 
all Europe. Every hole 
and corner is crammed 
with people singing, laugh- 
ing, or abusing each other 
with the greatest energy. What the tongue can- 
not express, the hands will, and a quarrel is kept 
up in violent pantomime, long after the parties are 
out of hearing, with all the scorn and hatred that 
ten fingers can express. As I walk on the Molo, 
among the fishermen, with their red caps and 
bare legs, I find myself involuntarily humming an 
air from " Massaniello." The manner in which 
the much-abused donkey is driven, is another 
feature ; the driver . follows close behind, holding 
on to the tail, by which he steers the beast skill- 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



131 



fully through the dense crowd, the poor animal 
braying, and he pounding it with a stick, as hard 
as he can, screaming with all his might at the 
same time. 

Then the beggars ! 
trotting after you 
and rapping on their 
chins with a noise 
like castanets, — a 
trick peculiar to the 
beggars of Italy, and 
more especially to 
those of Naples. 

There, too, are 
the flower-girls, who 
thrust a small bou- 
quet into your but- 
ton-hole as you pass, 
expecting to get 
from you, at least, 
four times its value. 
If a man points out 
the way to any place 

or street, he holds out his hand for a reward ; 
there is no end to their various ways of squeezing 
money out of you, and, as soon as they get it, 
they throw you aside like a dry lemon — without 
thanks. 




132 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



Every day, we have some very amusing scenes 
below our windows ; fellows in rags serenade us at 
all hours ; one affectionate individual with a guitar 
plants himself in front of my room and makes 
love to us with slow and pathetic strains. He is 
tender and humorous by turns, and in the midst 
of a most melancholy and touching ditty, breaks 

into a squeak after 
the manner of Punch, 
and utterly ruins the 
sentiment. Others act 
short, tragic panto- 
mimes, wherein they 
kill each other for the 
love of a six-foot 
damsel. Then comes 
Punch in his box, 
and bangs poor Judy 
about, while a select 
party of trained dogs 
in coat and frill, with 
tails screwed up to 
the tightest possible 
twist, stagger around 
on their hind legs to the wretched scraping of a 
cracked fiddle. 

The day after our arrival here, we started early 








1 '/'& ; % 






S 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 33 

in the morning for Vesuvius, but when we reached 
Resina, we unfortunately found all the mules had 
been engaged by persons who had been waiting 
a fortnight in Naples for sunshine; so we con- 
cluded to drive on to Pompeii. As we ap- 
proached the buried city, like some dread mon- 
ster Mt. Vesuvius lay before us, no breath issuing 
from those terrible jaws which have so often vom- 
ited devastation and death upon all within their 
reach. Giving no indication of the dreadful 
power within, it slept, its summit lost in a cloud. 
We looked eagerly for the first signs of the 
famous city, and at last discovered some broken 
walls above an embankment, which we were told 
was Pompeii ! It was with a strange and un- 
definable feeling that I found myself entering 
the house of Diomede, walking through the 
streets where the marks of wheels are quite vis- 
ible, or crossing them upon the huge stepping- 
stones, placed there more than two thousand 
years ago. We saw the well, its edge worn by 
the friction of the rope, and the bakers' shops 
with the ovens, in one of which, you remember, 
some loaves of bread were found. In the wine- 
cellar of one house, the guide showed an impres- 
sion of one of fifteen bodies that were found 
there, near the door; many wine-jars still remain, 



134 SKETCHES ABROAD 

partly buried in the ground and filled with ashes. 
In a garden, have been left a fountain and several 
small figures of marble standing around it, just as 
they were discovered. We saw the casts of the 
five figures that were found some three years ago 
— three men and two women. In one cast of a 
girl lying on her face, the skull and some of the 
bones of the feet and hands still remain in the 
plaster. One of the men lies on his back, with 
his mouth half open, and the brows drawn up and 
contracted, showing that he died in great agony. 

The houses of Pompeii are quite small, and the 
streets narrow ; in many of the rooms the frescos 
on the walls are as sharp and distinct as if re- 
cently painted. We had not time to examine 
anything properly, as the detestable guide hurried 
us through in the fast, business style. With a 
few exceptions, everything found in the city has 
been brought to the museum here, which we vis- 
ited to-day. The collection is wonderfully interest- 
ing, consisting of statues, mosaics, arms, armor, 
jewelry, household articles, etc., etc. In one of 
the helmets is the skull of a faithful soldier, who 
died at his post near the city gate. There were 
pots of rouge found in the house of Diomede, with 
pins, combs, and thimbles like those of to-day, and 
thousands of other things equally strange and in- 
teresting. 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



135 



As you may suppose, we did not fail to visit 
Herculaneum, which we did in single file, and by 
the light of candles which each held in his hand ; 
an amusing, but not very satisfactory performance, 
as, when we wished to see anything, — for in- 
stance, the impression of the comic mask on the 
ceiling of the theatre, — we were obliged to bring 
all our candles to bear on the point in order to 
find it. We were disappointed in seeing only the 
theatre. 




136 SKETCHES ABROAD 



Naples, February 1. 

OINCE I last wrote, we have been taking a 
short trip further south ; first to Sorrento — 
a delicious place situated on high cliffs overlook- 
ing the bay of Naples, and Mount Vesuvius in the 
distance. Our hotel was surrounded by orange 
groves, and on the trees were both fruit and flow- 
ers, which we gathered as we passed beneath 
them on our donkeys. We were here three days, 
waiting for a chance to visit Capri, but the 
weather was unpropitious, and we were obliged, 
unwillingly, to leave without accomplishing it. 
We drove to Torre dell' Annunciata, where we 
took the cars for Salerno, with the intention of 
going to Paestum to see the ruins there, which 
are older than anything in Rome, going back six 
hundred years before the Christian Era. Salerno 
is a lively, dirty town upon the bay, with a splen- 
did view of the Appenines for many miles. 

As we had heard some rather alarming ac- 
counts of brigands in the neighborhood of 
Paestum, we made inquiries, and were advised to 
take a guard ; so we procured an order for four 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



137 



carabineers from the commanding officer, and 
started at seven o'clock in the morning, accom- 
panied by our friends Mr. and Mrs. L . 

D being cautious, declined joining the party, 

and thought us decidedly foolish, to run the risk 
of being gobbled up by those terrible creatures. 

L 's courier told us there were no brigands 

left — that they had 
all been driven out 
of their hiding places 
by the soldiers ; and 
I thought the stories 
had been greatly ex- 
aggerated, as tales of 
that kind usually are 
— so off we went. 

The morning was 
lovely, and the scen- 
ery all along the road 
exquisite. Every- 
where we saw men 
and women working 
in the most pictur- 
esque costumes — 
the women in the 
Neapolitan dress, and the men in sheepskin coats 
and sandaled feet, watching herds of buffaloes, 
18 




138 SKETCHES ABROAD 

and flocks of sheep and goats. As we drove 
along, I noticed a number of men travelling on 
horseback, with guns slung at their backs, or 
across the saddle in front : this was suggestive 
of something serious ! When we reached Eboli, 
where our guard was to be obtained, we saw a 
number of carabineers mounting their horses to 
accompany a cart full of men, — prisoners, — who 
had been taken in the neighboring country for 
various crimes — theft, etc. The poor devils were 
handcuffed in pairs, and left for Salerno while we 
were waiting. At last four fine looking soldiers 
were selected for us, and away we went again, our 
guards each armed with a carbine and revolver. 
I found, afterwards, they were all men who had 
smelt powder, and had been in many a hot and 
hasty fight. One of them had killed nine brig- 
ands during the last four years, and another, 
five ; they said they always tried ,to make short 
work of them, shooting them on the spot as soon 
as taken. The corporal had a medal which had 
been given to him as a reward of bravery. 

After travelling twenty-four miles, we reached 
Paestum, where we found a few scattered houses, 
and the ruins of three grand temples. We 
entered the Temple of Neptune, which is the 
finest and most perfect of all ; after examining it 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 39 

for some time with the greatest interest, I sat 
down at the base of one of its massive columns 
and began a drawing, while the rest spread our 
lunch upon a fallen fragment of the ruin. Our 
guards, of course, were furnished with some of the 
good things, and while discussing them, we had 
many visitors in the shape of dogs and boys — the 
latter having for sale some coins which had been 
dug up in the neighborhood. The smallest among 
them, apparently anxious to turn an honest penny, 
and not having any coins to dispose of, sud- 
denly appeared among us with an immense 
turnip, leaves and all, which he shouldered like 
a. musket, and stood before us, afraid to ask, but 
innocently waiting for a purchaser. 

After we had finished our lunch, we visited the 
Basilica and the Field of Tombs. But one tomb 
remains, into which we crept ; it has part of a 
fresco still remaining, some of the colors, strange 
to say, quite fresh. 

As we wandered about attended by our armed 
guard, who never left us for a moment, and fol- 
lowed by the boys, the corporal entertained us 
with his adventures with the brigands, describing, 
with true Italian fire and vivacity, the taking of 
the captain of the band, which he did, a short 
time before, with his own hand. He said that 



140 SKETCHES ABROAD 

worthy was greatly alarmed on being captured, 
and begged him, on his knees, for the love of the 
Holy Mother, to spare his life ; that he would re- 
form and become an honest man. " No," said the 
gallant corporal, " you would murder me or any 
of my men if you had an opportunity ; so you 
must die," and placing a revolver to his head, 
blew out his brains on the spot. All this was told 
in the most dramatic manner — the soldier falling 
on his knees, with clasped hands and pleading 
face, shaking from head to foot with well-assumed 
fear. It was quite an effective scene ; the back- 
ground the glorious sea, the foreground the grand 
Temple of Neptune surrounded by a vast and 
desolate plain. 

As we returned to Salerno, the soldiers pointed 
out to us a place not more than half a mile from 
the road, where they had taken and shot two 
brigands the night before ! and a house close by 
the road, where, a year ago, a farmer had been 
murdered for refusing to give up his money. 
They also showed us the spot where Mr. Moens 
and his friend were seized, three years ago, and 
held for ransom. The corporal told us that he 
and his comrades scour the country every night, 
enter every house, and make the inmates give a 
good account of themselves, as, very often, the 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



141 



peasants are in league with the brigands. We 
did not reach the hotel till long after dark, having 
been delayed at a ferry, — our prolonged absence 

causing much anxiety to poor D . . . . 

We returned to Naples on the next morning, 
where we were looked upon as heroes and hero- 
ines, in consequence of the adventurous spirit 
we had shown in thus braving the dangers of 
Paestum, for we were the first who had done so 
this season. 




142 



SKETCHES ABROAD 




Rome, February 14. 

T seemed very pleasant to 
return to our comfort- 
able apartments in 
Rome, where we were 
received by our good 
Carmina with smiles 
and welcome. I have 
been very busy mak- 
ing drawings from the 
peasants, and conse- 
quently have not seen 
much of the city lately. 

We have been to a reception given by the new 
Spanish ambassador. We found it difficult to 
reach the palace, so great was the crowd of car- 
riages and of people assembled to hear a band of 
music, which was playing opposite the entrance. 
After some little delay, however, our turn came, 
and driving under the porte coch'ere, we alighted 
and passed up broad flights of marble stairs, the 
balusters of which were entirely hidden with 
masses of flowers, — statues and flowering plants 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 43 

on each landing, — through a hall, where a foun- 
tain was playing amidst palms, ferns, mosses, and 
flowers, to the reception-rooms. Servants in livery 
stood on each landing and at the door of each 
room, whose business it was to announce the 
names of the guests, tossing them from one to 
another like a ball. We started fair with the first 
servant, who pronounced the names quite dis- 
tinctly, but having to pass through eight rooms, 
we finally reached the ambassador and his lady 
as " Count and Countess Falandrini ! " or some- 
thing like it. We found that almost every one 
turned up in the same remarkable manner. 

About twelve rooms were thrown open to the 
guests, each of which was crowded with people : 
princes, dukes, counts, cardinals, and officers by 
the score, all in the most gorgeous attire. Two 
Princesses were fairly loaded down with most 
magnificent diamonds and pearls — a blaze of 
splendor ! One or two of the men were nearly hid- 
den behind a regular breastwork of decorations, 
looking over the top to see what you thought 
of them. Numerous nice young gentlemen were 
among the guests, having their hair parted in 
the middle, being extremely weak in their legs, 
and much attached to their hats. One individual, 
in a court-dress covered with gold lace and deco- 



144 SKETCHES ABROAD 

rations, was so stuffed and padded about the chest, 
he looked like an over-fed old pigeon with an un- 
natural condition of crop. The whole effect of 
these rooms, filled with brilliant dresses, full of 
color and glittering with jewels, was truly superb. 

On Thursday we visited the Baths of Caracalla, 
a stupendous ruin, which, almost more than any- 
thing else, gives an idea of the luxury and mag- 
nificence in which the old Romans lived. We 
then went to the Church of San Clemente, which 
was considered one of the most ancient churches 
in Rome, until a few years ago, when another was 
discovered beneath it, which workmen are now 
excavating. A young monk gave us each a taper, 
and led us down to and through this lower build- 
ing. Some of the columns are very beautiful, and 
no two alike ; the pavement is mosaic, but very 
much broken, and there are frescos on the walls, 
still in good condition, of a very rude style of 
art. 

At the Church of the Capuccini, we went into 
their under-ground cemetery, where they bury 
their dead friars for four years, and then disinter 
and dress them in the garments of their order, 
and arrange them in different attitudes in niches, 
made for that purpose around the graves — the 
walls are also decorated with thousands of their 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 45 

bones in various ornamental forms, and ghastly 
chandeliers of the same material hang from the 
ceiling. It was a very disgusting sight, and I was 
glad to get away as soon as possible. Afterwards, 
at dinner, I was quite convinced that I was eating 
friar steaks and monk soup ! 

Yesterday we saw the collection of pictures at 
the Borghese Palace. There are some fine Titi- 
ans, and an interesting portrait of Caesar Borgia, 
by Raphael, — a handsome man with a bad expres- 
sion, — and many other works by the old mas- 
ters ; in fact, the best* private collection we have 
seen in Rome, meriting a much longer descrip- 
tion than I have time to give it. We also visited 
the Spada Palace, principally to see the famous 
statue of Pompey, at the foot of which " great 
Caesar fell ! " The figure is about ten feet high, 
the right hand is extended, and it has a stern, 
hard face of the true Roman type. The pictures 
were of less interest, containing nothing that 
stamped itself upon the memory. 



19 



146 SKETCHES ABROAD 



Rome, February 23. 

73 OME is now in the midst of the Carnival, 
■^^ and the Corso, the famous street on this 
occasion, is literally thronged with a concourse of 
absurd merry-makers, every afternoon. The grand 
amusement of this motley crowd seems to consist 
in peppering each other with flowers and confetti. 
This throwing things at your neighbor's head is, 
to me, a very ridiculous and childish performance, 
but it is the thing to do, and they do it thor- 
oughly, from two till six o'clock, for eleven days, 
and call it fun. 

Every man you meet in the afternoon, appears 
to have been put through a course of flour ; he 
has been at the Carnival, " enjoying of himself," 
and with a shocking bad hat jammed over his 
eyes, looks very like a candle with an extinguisher 
on. The ladies, from the balconies above, pelt the 
passers-by with bouquets as large as cabbages, 
and receive the same delicate attention from the 
admiring crowd below. Carriages filled with men 
in extraordinary costumes, pitch turnips and car- 
rots at the lovely beings in the balconies ; if these 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 47 

vegetable missiles come in contact with the fair 
one's nose, a shout is produced in proportion to 
the rubbing of the unhappy feature. When an 
individual fails to catch a bouquet, the people in- 
stantly dive for it like ducks in a pond, — heels 
up, heads down, — and when the lucky one turns 
up again to the surface, bouquet in hand, out of a 
cloud of dust, grinning, puffing, and triumphant, 
he darts down the street, using his boots freely on 
all who oppose him. 

The ever-present Yankee enjoys all this pro- 
digiously, and makes his appearance upon the 
Corso in the most conspicuous of turn-outs, chin- 
deep in confetti, with an inexhaustible supply of 
monstrous bouquets, and in a costume of the 
most absurd description. Of course everything 
he does is on the grandest scale, — a perpetual 
spread of the " Bird of Freedom." About half- 
past five o'clock, a heavy gun is heard, when the 
cavalry come down the street at a gallop, to clear 
it for the races. Every man instantly flattens 
himself against his neighbor, while the boys bolt 
between the legs of the same, to get out of the 
way. In a moment all eyes look up the Corso, — 
you hear the rush of the flying horses, which pass 
you like a flash, covered with foam and decorated 
with ribbons and bright copper plates with sharp 



1 48 SKETCHES ABROAD 

corners, which play upon their flanks like knives, 
urging them to their highest speed, followed by 
a roar from the excited crowd. Thus ends the 
Carnival for the day, to be repeated the next, with 
all its follies and absurdities. 

On Thursday, there was a grand review of 
troops at the Borghese Villa, which, by the way, 
has the most lovely grounds I have seen for a 
long time, with splendid stone pines rising from 
an exquisite lawn of the richest grass. At about 
half-past four o'clock in the afternoon, when the 
shadows are long, the effect is very charming. In 
the centre of this bit of fairy land, is an ancient 
amphitheatre, where stood the cavalry, and above, 
on the right and left, the infantry. After we had 
waited an hour and a half for the performance to 
commence, — sitting on one of the stone seats 
many a Roman two thousand years ago had 
pressed before us, — the trumpets sounded, and 
the band began an air which, I am sorry to say, 
suggested " Master Stanley in the great two-horse 
act," more particularly when the general in com- 
mand came down and round the circle at a mild 
canter, holding on to his hat, — apparently too 
small for him, — which he nearly lost as he 
bounced about and gave the public a capital view 
of the distant country between himself and the 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



149 



saddle ! Among the aids of this unhappy eques- 
trian there was an officer gotten up regardless of 




expense, with a prodigious feather stuck in his 
cap, whom the ladies pronounced a " perfect love 
of a man." He did the circle without a bounce, 



150 SKETCHES ABROAD 

and came out triumphant, happy fellow ! After 
these feats of horsemanship were over, the in- 
fantry marched and countermarched, and dis- 
appeared gradually, towards the Eternal City, in 
much dust and with faint music. 

On Monday we drove out three or four' miles 
on the Campagna, to see a fox-hunt. The 
" meet " was at " Nero's Villa," formerly one of 
the residences of that tyrant, but with nothing 
now left to show its grandeur — a few bits of 
broken wall half embedded in the earth, serve to 
mark the spot, and that is all. We found a num- 
ber of carriages filled with ladies, and a large 
assemblage of both sexes on horseback ; many of 
the gentlemen gotten up after the manner of the 
English, in red coats and top-boots, which made a 
very pretty display as they dashed off after the 
fox, which they soon unearthed. The fox being, 
like most of his race, uncommonly wide-awake, 
was not caught, and they consequently all re- 
turned in a limp condition and greatly chop- 
fallen. 

Just as it grew dark this evening, we heard 
singularly melancholy music in front of the 
house, and going to the window saw, passing 
below, the funeral of a young woman. First in 
the procession came several members of the order 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 5 1 

called Misericordia, bearing lighted candles and 
wearing a peculiar hood which entirely covers the 
head and face, having only holes for the eyes; 
these were followed by a long train of monks ; 
then came the body lying on an open bier, dressed 
in white and decorated with flowers — she looked 
like a very beautiful woman asleep. After the 
corpse, were borne two common pine coffins — 
one marked on the lid with a large black cross, 
% the other was a simple rough box. They moved 
slowly down the street chanting — a sad, pictur- 
esque sight. 




152 



SKETCHES ABROAD 




Rome, March 30. 

E have visited the Coliseum by 
moonlight ! As it is con- 
sidered dangerous to go to 
such places after dark, we 
joined a party of friends, 9 
who had been waiting, like 
ourselves, for a pleasant 
moonlight evening. After 
presenting our pass to the 
guard at the entrance, we 
were joined by a guide with a torch, who led us 
through the great corridors with their massive 
arches, the moonlight falling through them on 
the stone floor, throwing other parts into intense 
shadow and mystery, which was grand and dream- 
like. After passing about half way round the im- 
mense building, we went up to what were once 
the seats, from which we looked down into the 
vast arena, one hundred and fifty feet below. 
While we sat thinking of the horrible scenes of 
savage cruelty these crumbling walls had wit- 
nessed, the hooting of the owls from the ivy with 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 53 

which the ruins are covered, was the only sound 
which broke the solemn stillness of the hour. 
From our elevated position the scene was singu- 
larly impressive. The opposite wall, nearly lost 
in shadow, rising against the distant Campagna 
which faded away into the far-off mountains, and 
the calm moonlight falling upon the now peaceful 
arena and flooding with light the Christian em- 
blem which rises in its midst, formed a striking 
contrast to the barbarous days when men " were 
butchered to make a Roman holiday." 

Rome is the only place where you can procure 
models without difficulty, that is to say, profes- 
sional posers. They are peasants who come from 
the neighboring villages, to sit or " pose " for the 
artists in their national costumes, during the 
winter ; while, in the summer, they are engaged 
on the farms and roads, as laborers. Some of 
them are quite handsome, their eyes being par- 
ticularly fine, — large and melting. Stella, the 
most celebrated of them, is certainly very beauti- 
ful, and has a little boy about six years old, who 
is a perfectly fascinating little rascal. My model 
this morning was a little girl, whose loveliness 
and grace of movement were quite charming. 
The mother, who came with her, bringing her 
bambino or infant, — which greatly resembled a 



154 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



grub, its whole body being bound from the waist 
down with a white bandage, like a mummy, the 
hands alone free, — seated herself upon the floor 




to sew, and rocked her bambino upon hei out- 
stretched legs; the sandaled feet supporting its 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 155 

head while she plied her needle ; altogether quite 
a primitive and economical style of cradle. 

Two or three days ago, we drove to Grotto 
Ferrata, Albano, and Frascati, to attend a fair 
held at the latter place. The day was perfect; 
the air balmy and soft, birds were singing, and it 
was a delightful sensation to leave the city be- 
hind us and breathe the fresh atmosphere of the 
country. On our way, we passed an old church 
standing by the roadside, far out on the Cam- 
pagna, in front of which, kneeling humbly in the 
dust, were several peasants, some telling their 
beads, and others bent in earnest prayer to the 
Madonna, whose image was seen within : some 
were in their sheep-skin jackets with sandals on 
their feet ; others in long blue or brown cloaks, 
while the women and children wore upon their 
heads the usual folded cloth. I thought it the 
most touching and poetic thing I had seen in 
Italy. The people here, you know, are com- 
pletely under the power of the priests, and have 
entire faith, which made the scene I speak of 
more impressive, for they were sincere in their 
devotions. 

The whole road between Albano and Frascati 
was alive with people going and returning from 
the Fair ; some on foot, others on donkeys ; many 



156 SKETCHES ABROAD 

riding double on the smallest of animals — the feet 
of the men within a few inches of the ground ; 
their hats decorated with ribbons, feathers, or 
flowers purchased at the fair. Several had on 
three or four hats, one on top of the other ; an- 
other, a live pig around his neck, the legs held in 
each hand. Some had donkeys "wot wouldn't 
go," others, donkeys with a strong propensity to 
lie down and roll in the dust, quite regardless of 
their burdens. Then there were peasants in vari- 
ous, curious, and always gay, costumes ; people of 
a higher class in carriages or on horseback, while, 
occasionally, some of the nobility, in vehicles 
drawn by four horses, on which sat gay postil- 
lions with their long boots and short embroidered 
jackets, — knowing and natty, — would rattle 
past us at a brisk trot, the beggars following, hat 
in hand, with a withered leg or arm held up to 
excite compassion ; on all sides noise, dust, and 
confusion. The fair was a perfect jam ; the 
booths on each side of the street, close together, 
and filled with everything you can imagine. The 
odors were strong and the dirt in proportion ; 
nevertheless we enjoyed the novelty of the scene 
immensely. 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 57 



Rome, April 7. 

f~\ N Wednesday, we visited the Catacombs — 
^-"^ a very small portion of them — with a party 
of friends. When we reached the entrance, which 
was in an open field, a guide approached who 
provided us with candles ; following him, we de- 
scended a few steps and entered this mysterious 
resting-place of the dead. The passages through 
which we walked are only wide enough for one 
person to pass, and in many places but little 
higher than your head. On both sides are the 
cavities which were dug in the earth, as recep- 
tacles for bodies, one above the other, like berths 
in a steamboat. Some still contain fragments of 
marble with inscriptions upon them, others, heaps 
of dust and bits of bone. It had a strange effect 
as I looked at my friends in advance, whose 
figures were sometimes half lost to the eye as 
they bobbed their heads and candles into a 
tomb, with the hope of obtaining some precious 
morsel. 

Occasionally, we found ourselves in small apart- 
ments, large enough to contain a number of per- 



I5§ SKETCHES ABROAD 

sons, which are supposed to have been places of 
worship. In one we saw two sarcophagi ; one 
containing only a skeleton, while in the other was 
a body, wrapped like the Egyptian mummy, 
which had evidently been embalmed. Some of 
the apartments are frescoed, but, with all due 
reverence for the feeling which prompted the 
decorations, my keen sense of the ludicrous fully 
appreciated the grotesque simplicity of some of 
them, more especially of those representing the 
story of Jonah, who, on one side of the room, was 
being pitched overboard, and on the other, bolted 
by the whale, who took him like a pill, with a 
very wry face, and evidently did not relish him. 
After walking for some time through these dis- 
mal passages, we were glad to return to fresh air 
and cheerful daylight. 

This morning, we went to the American chapel 

to hear the Rev. . As the room in which he 

preached was crowded, we took a seat in the en- 
try. Opposite to me was a window overlooking 
a garden, where, on the high stone wall which 
divided the garden from its neighbor, was seated 
a monkey, gravely engaged in catching fleas and 
swallowing the same, wisely knowing they would 
never get out of that to trouble him. Below him, 
on the grass, were two turtles and a comfortable 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL, 1 59 

looking cat, the former crawling about and taking 
the air, with that cautious, telescopic movement 
of the head peculiar to them, and with a sharp 
eye to the movements of the flea-catcher on the 
wall, who might have a turn for turtles as well as 
fleas. I found it difficult to keep my face in a 
quiet condition ; the gentleman on the wall didn't 
see the joke at all, but wore a profound and 
searching expression, — very like an antiquated 
Frenchman, — passing his eye from his body to 
the end of his tail, to the extremity of which his 
enemies appeared to retreat before jumping off. 
It was certainly very improper for a respectable 
monkey to be engaged in that kind of thing on 
Sunday, and, perhaps, equally improper for me to 
be watching the operation, but — it was irresis- 
tible. 

As we were returning, one day last week, from 
a drive on Monte Pincio, we were much amused 
at seeing that illustrious King of the Beggars, 
Beppo, pushed up onto his donkey by two rag- 
ged little urchins, who strained and tugged to get 
him into his seat. Fortunately for him, his de- 
fective legs have been very profitable to him, 
having, among other things, procured him the 
luxury of a daily ride to and from his old estab- 
lished post on the Spanish steps, " where beggars 



i6o 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



most do congregate." He was banished from 
here a few years ago, for throwing one of his 
hand-shoes at a lady, who mildly suggested that 

he did not need 
charity, but he 
has been allowed 
to return, this 
winter, for two 
days in each 
week. 

This afternoon, 
I went to St 
Peter's to heai 
vespers and have 
a last look at the 
mighty Church. 
I stood for some 
time opposite the bronze figure of St. Peter, 
which is seated with the right foot advanced, 
watching the unceasing process of kissing its toe ! 
Priests, friars, beggars, ladies, and gentlemanly- 
looking men, all, in passing, saluted it ; some giv- 
ing it a wipe with the cuff of a coat or a hand- 
kerchief, before the operation. One respectable 
father held up a large family of small children to 
the pious toe, when they all flattened their noses 
on it in succession ! On one occasion, we saw 




WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



I6l 



this figure, — which is said to have been once a 
heathen God, and it certainly looks very much 
like it, — robed in rich priestly garments, a jew- 
eled mitre adorning the head and an enormous 
ring upon the upraised forefinger ! 

In another part of the church, there was a 
priest in a confessional box, apparently fishing, 
with a long rod, over the heads of some four or 
five girls and boys and a woman, who were kneel- 
ing in front of him, on the marble pavement. I 
asked the friend who accompanied me, what the 
priest was doing, and was told that he was " grant- 
ing the family absolution ! " He dabbed each of 
them on the head with a backward jerk, as if he 
had caught a new saint at every cast of his 
line 




162 SKETCHES ABROAD 



Florence, April 16. 

\7l 7E have bidden adieu to Rome, and with 
great regret, for it is* a place where, the 
longer you stay, the more you become attached to 
it. It has seemed quite homelike to us, after 
three months of comfort there, such as we shall 
find nowhere else until we reach Anlerica. The 
separation was a sad business for the good Car- 
mina, who had a moist eye for days before we 
parted, and went about "lamenting." She is a 
tender-hearted creature, and I fear we " ne'er shall 
look upon her like again." All the Italians with 
whom we had any intercourse, gave us, at part- 
ing, the kindly and musical " Addio, Signori, 
buon viaggio," which is the custom among them, 
and a very pretty one. Of course they " don't 
care a snap " for you, but they appear to, and it is 
a pleasant humbug. We have lingered so long in 
Rome it will necessarily shorten our stay in the 
other Italian cities, and indeed, cause us to omit 
altogether several which we had hoped to have 
visited. 

The grand collections of pictures here are a 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL, 1 63 

great treat, and I have enjoyed them more than 
any in Europe. The Uffizzi Palace has a very 
plain exterior, but is massive, looking more like a 
prison than a palace, which is the general char- 
acter of the palaces of Florence. It surrounds 
three sides of a large court, which has an arcade 
adorned with statues of the illustrious poets and 
painters of Italy. Near the entrance of this 
court is the Loggia de'Lanzi, where, in a portico, 
are statues in bronze and marble by John of 
Bologna and Donatello, also, the Perseus of Ben- 
venuto Cellini. Opposite, is the Palazzo Vecchio, 
— a quaint old structure, in front of which stand 
a colossal statue of David by Michael Angelo, 
and a group by Bandinelli ; there is also a foun- 
tain of Neptune by Ammanati, and an equestrian 
statue of Cosmo I. by John of Bologna — all of 
which combined, make the Piazza della Signoria 
a very interesting spot. 

In the Uffizzi Gallery, there is an immense' col- 
lection of fine works from every school of art. 
Titian is there in great strength, splendid in 
color, though weak in drawing, as he frequently 
is. His " Venus," which hangs in the Tribune, 
where are the gems of the collection, is the finest 
piece of coloring I have ever seen — it is flesh 
itself — and, for texture, surface, and truth of 



1 64 SKETCHES ABROAD 

color, it is beyond anything in Europe — a mar- 
velous imitation of nature. The picture, as a 
composition, is not good or in keeping with the 
subject ; the introduction of the girl and woman 
at a clothes chest in the background, is as com- 
monplace and poor as possible, and the kneeling 
girl, a mere doll. One room is filled with por- 
traits of artists painted by themselves. Among 
the statues, those that appeared to me the finest, 
" were " The Clapping Fawn," " The Wrestlers," 
and the " Venus de Medici," " the statue which 
enchants the world." The group of the " Wres- 
tlers " is one of the greatest of the antiques. The 
figures writhe together on the ground in a tangled 
knot, with the utmost grace, energy, and truth of 
action. The features have little or no expression, 
which hardly agrees with the great muscular ex- 
ertion of the figures striving, with their greatest 
force, for victory. The Greek sculptors, in nearly 
all their works, evidently avoided expressing in- 
tense feeling of any kind through the features ; 
their love of the beautiful, probably, causing them 
to think that the human face, when convulsed by 
passion, loses its beauty, which is found more in 
repose. It was certainly not for want of ability, 
as we see in the " Laocoon," " Niobe, 1 ' and the 
" Dying Gladiator," the fullest rendering of it. 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 65 

The Pitti Palace is, if possible, plainer on the 
outside than the other, but possesses rare works 
by the mightiest masters. There, among other 
portraits, is one of himself by that extraordinary 
Dutchman, Rembrandt, that is absolutely beyond 
praise, — one of the finest things in the col- 
lection, — one. or two Vandykes and works by 
Titian that are remarkable. Rubens again, pow- 
erful and not too refined, but with an amazing 
force of color. Between the two palaces is a 
long, covered passage which, crossing the river 
Arno over the Ponte Vecchio, enables one to visit 
the two galleries without descending to the street. 
It is filled with a large collection of sketches, in 
chalk or ink, by the great masters, — principally 
of Italy, — intensely interesting to an artist or 
lover of art ; a place where he may study the 
dawn and development of ideas by the greatest 
minds that ever devoted themselves to art, from 
dot to line, from line to form, from form to 
thought; from the flash of the first crude con- 
ception to the after steps cautiously and labori- 
ously advancing to a perfect whole. 

This afternoon, we walked to the Baptistery, 
the Cathedral, and the Campanile of Giotto, and 
stood in the street gazing up at them. We 
paused some time in front of the Gates of the 



i66 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



Baptistery, which are exquisite in composition 
and well deserving their great fame. Entering 
the Cathedral, we heard a monk preaching to a 
large crowd of people under a canopy. The 
vibration of his voice, heard from a distant part 
of the building, sounded like the hum of millions 
of insects, and had a most peculiar effect. . . . 




WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



167 



Florence, April 25. 

FEW days ago, we visited 
the Church of San Lorenzo, 
which contains two of 
t\ Michael Angelo's greatest 
works, the tombs of " Lo- 
renzo de Medici " and "Guli- 
ano de Medici," both of 
which exhibit — as most of 
his works do — great exag- 
geration of form and action. 
The sitting figure of " Lorenzo de Medici " is 
exceedingly fine ; it has a melancholy, brooding 
look, that is wonderfully impressive, forcibly re- 
calling those admirable lines of Rogers — 




" What beneath his helm-like bonnet scowls ? 
Is it a face, or but an eyeless skull ? 
'Tis lost in shade \ yet, like the basilisk, 
It fascinates, and is intolerable." 

On the opposite side of the sacristy, stands the 
tomb of Guliano, very similar in design, but less 
pleasing than .the other ; the principal figure 



1 68 SKETCHES ABROAD 

being forced in action, with a prodigious length 
of neck which unites badly with the head. It is 
supposed that the recumbent figures on these 
tombs were intended to represent Day and Night 
on one, and, on the other, the Dawn of Life and 
Death. If such were the intention of the artist, 
he has somewhat obscurely expressed the ideas, 
which are highly poetic in themselves, but not so 
rendered by him, except, partially, in the female 
figures. The male reclining figures simply ex- 
press repose in most constrained and uncomforta- 
ble attitudes. These groups are too large for the 
sarcophagi upon which they rest, and I should 
say that they were the after-thought of an uncon- 
genial mind. After studying the pure, refined 
works of the Greeks, so true to nature, so full of 
dignity without effort, and of exquisite feeling for 
form and proportion, it is hard to entirely relish, 
or thoroughly appreciate the peculiar and stupen- 
dous genius of Angelo, whose figures seem mostly 
weighed down and oppressed by their own ex- 
cessive development of muscle. The unfinished 
group in the same room, also by Angelo, of the 
" Virgin and Child," is a grand conception, and 
has, to me, much more of the truth and sim- 
plicity of nature than the others. 

From the church, we proceeded to the house 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 169 

of Michael Angelo, which stands in rather a nar- 
row street, and bears upon its door an inscription 
to the effect that there lived the " divine Michael 
Angelo," etc., etc. We ascended a flight of stairs 
and entered, first, a long,- narrow room, between 
the front windows of which is placed a marble 
statue of him (life size), in a sitting position ; a very 
good figure, and full of character. On each side 
of this, painted on panels, are pictures illustrating 
the most remarkable scenes and events in the life 
of the artist, — none of the pictures of any great 
merit. The next apartment was his dining-room'; 
beyond, a room containing many of his original 
drawings and sketches, made for his finished 
works, which had, as you may suppose, a wonder- 
ful attraction for - me ; showing the manner in 
which he thought out the pictures which have 
made him immortal and filled the world with his 
name. After examining these for some time, we 
passed into another room, on the right side of 
which was a panel, — this, on being pushed aside 
by the guide, disclosed his private study ; a room 
little deeper than a closet, containing a desk 
with a bench in front of it, — the light admitted 
through a small window on the left. On the desk 
lay his slippers, and above it, on the wall, hung 
his two walking-sticks. Of course I sat on the 



170 SKETCHES ABROAD 

bench and placed, with reverence, my elbows on 
the desk, where the illustrious elbows of the 
mighty genius had so often rested. The only 
other article in the cabinet, was a portrait of Vit- 
toria Colonna, to whom, history says, he was 
greatly attached during his long life. The next 
and last room contained a large number of his 
drawings and autograph letters. The house, 
which ever since his death has been occupied by 
his descendants, has little of its original character 
left, having been modernized for the comfort of 
its occupants. 

We saw, the next day, at the Church of Santa 
Croce, the tombs of Michael Angelo, Dante, Gali- 
leo, Alfieri, and Machiavelli. On Good Friday, 
we went into the Church of the Annunziata, to 
hear the " Miserere." It was nearly dusk when 
we entered, and the priests and monks were 
chanting behind the altar, in front of which 
candles were burning. In a few moments, the 
voices ceased, and the organ, accompanied by a 
fine band of wind and stringed instruments, took 
up the air whilst all the lights, but one, were suc- 
cessively extinguished, leaving the church in com- 
parative darkness ; when again the voices were 
heard in a melancholy wail, gradually fading into 
silence. All was in keeping with the sentiment 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 171 

of the music ; the grand old church about us, lost 
in the gloom -of approaching night, the people 
kneeling silently around with bowed heads and 
clasped hands ; some telling their beads and 
moving their lips mechanically, others, appar- 
ently, praying with deep devotion. All this was, 
to me, touching and beautiful. 

In contrast to this, was a most curious and 
ridiculous ceremony, which I yesterday witnessed, 
at the Duomo. It has taken place for the last 
four hundred years, and has never failed to inter- 
est the people. There stood in front of the 
church an immense, black, wooden tower about 
twenty-five feet high, festooned with fire-works. 
On the top were four dolphins, heads down and 
tails up, supporting a huge Catherine wheel, — 
about the size of that of a cart, — placed horizon- 
tally. This tower stood on wheels and was drawn 
by oxen. From the centre of it, came a rope 
about as thick as your finger, which was stretched 
tight by being attached to the altar at the back of 
the church. The crowd was immense, outside as 
well as in. While we stood, fully expecting to 
see a lively monk or priest dance a measure on 
the tight-rope, the chanting ceased, a frightful 
fizzing and spitting commenced, and a small, 
white lump of something, about as large as a 



172 , SKETCHES ABROAD 

man's fist, came spinning down the rope from the 
altar, cracking and spitting until it reached the 
tower outside, where an awful roar and general 
bursting of everything immediately took place. 
The Catherine wheel began to whirl, throwing 
out countless stars, the crackers popped and 
banged, the rockets shot into the air, rockets shot 
down to the earth, great guns and small blazed 
away from all parts of the tower, and, in a 
moment after, the something came whizzing back 
again to the altar, having done its work. I was 
told that the small something represented the 
Dove or Holy Ghost ! and the fireworks, the 
bursting of the grain in the coming harvest, aided 
by the Virgin, who was supposed to be in the 
tower, and to whom the peasants pray for an 
abundant harvest ! If the crackers and rockets 
should fail to pop and fiz, it would be looked 
upon as an unfavorable sign, and bad crops would 
surely follow ! Early in the morning of the day 
upon which this performance is to take place, a 
procession goes to a certain church, where a piece 
of the Holy Sepulchre is kept, from which to 
obtain a spark to light the Dove ; being limestone, 
a match is adroitly used, which more easily gives 
the required light, but, of course, the people are 
not informed of the human means employed. 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



173 



The best of it was, that not a smile was to be 
seen on any face during this very extraordinary 
exhibition ; all were as solemn and grave as pos- 
sible, — evidently regarding it as a most impor- 
tant affair, — and, upon its satisfactory conclusion, 
quietly dispersed to their business, for it was pre- 
cisely 12 a. m. when the Dove started from the 
altar. As the sun was shining brightly at the 
time, there was no effect whatever from the fire- 
works, except to make the whole affair more ab- 
surd. 




174 



SKETCHES ABROAD 




Vfnice, May 6. 

ROM Florence 
by a railroad 
which crosses 
the Appe- 
nines, and is 
a marvelous 
piece of engineering, — dining at Bologna, but 
not on sausages, — and passing through Padua 
regretfully, so enticing it looked, with its ancient 
towers rising against the evening sky, — we came 
to Venice, which we reached soon after dark. 

As we approached the " City of the Sea," the 
effect of its thousand lights, that seemed hovering 
in mid-air, their bright reflections dropping like 
streams of fire into the water, was strange and 
dream-like. I was glad to leave the railway, enter 
a gondola, — which is so perfectly in keeping 
with the romance of the place, — and float rapidly 
away from the noise and confusion of the prosaic 
station. With the gondoliers standing, one at 
the stern and the other at the bow, pushing their 
long oars before them, we moved silently along 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. I 75 

from light into darkness, under bridges, past 
ancient palaces, which rose on either hand, — 
the melancholy wrecks of former splendor, — see- 
ing now, a solitary figure glide slowly across a 
bridge, then lost in the black shadows of the 
narrow street beyond ; the perfect silence only 
broken by the warning cries of the gondoliers as 
a long, hearse-like object suddenly shot across 
our path, — the gondola of some night-wanderer 
like ourselves. And thus, on and on, until our 
attention was arrested by a burst of light from an 
open door-way which, our gondolier l^old us, was 
the entrance to — the Victoria Hotel ! 

Daylight, alas ! soon dispelled the fanciful vis- 
ions of the night before, on finding ourselves in a 
house surrounded by modern comforts and en- 
joying a breakfast of coffee, toast, eggs, and a 
fish that might easily have been hooked out of the 
canal from our window, — but which, I fervently 
trust, was not. After having done justice to this 
sumptuous feast, we sallied forth in search of the 
interesting and picturesque. 

We found the Piazza of St. Mark so familiar to 
us, through the medium of engravings and photo- 
graphs, as to feel by no means a stranger to it. 
There was the grand Cathedral, with its brilliantly 
colored facade and once gilded domes ; there, the 



176 SKETCHES ABROAD 

Ducal Palace with its famous red columns, be- 
tween which, it is said, political prisoners were 
put to death in the fourteenth century. There, 
also, the Clock Tower with the two bronze giants 
who strike each hour upon a huge bell ; and the 
Campanile, which stands alone and has no archi- 
tectural beauty, but from the top of which we 
afterwards had a fine view of the city. 

We entered the Cathedral, spent some time in 
examining its beauties, and were greatly inter- 
ested in its peculiar construction. The pavement, 
which in many places has sunk, is now so very 
uneven as to make it somewhat difficult to walk 
on it without stumbling. Leaving the Cathedral, 
we proceeded to the Molo to seek a gondola from 
those usually stationed near the two granite 
columns, one of which supports the Winged Lion 
of St. Mark, and the other St. Theodore standing 
on a crocodile. The gondoliers came upon us 
like ravenous wolves, clamoring for a " fare ; " we 
were, however, finally taken possession of by an 
ancient mariner of unexceptionable manners, who 
gallantly handed the ladies into the gondola, and, 
after I had placed myself beside them, pushed out 
from the shore and we soon found ourselves 
skimming along the grand canal. As we passed 
them, the gondolier told us the names of many 



■J II w 




WITH PEN AND PENCIL. I 77 

of the once splendid palaces, which are now de- 
serted by their owners, and, some of them, con- 
verted into storehouses and offices ; their once 
frescoed and gilded fronts blotched and stained 
by time and damp. 

When the sun shines, as it did on this occa- 
sion, enough color yet remains to lend a certain 
indescribable charm to " the poor remains of 
beauty still admired." But alack ! alack ! on a 
rainy day, — a dismal, drizzling, rainy day, — 
nothing could be more utterly wretched and 
forlorn. Our bark swept rapidly on beneath the 
broad arch of the Rialto bridge, your romantic 
idea of which will be speedily put to flight, when 
I tell you that it is conspicuous for the green 
blinds which protect its shops from the sun ! Out 
into the Lagoon, and returning to the city, we 
passed through the Ghetto, or Jews' Quarter, and 
so we floated about until we finally landed at the 
Academy of Fine Arts. Here, among the finest 
works of the Venetian School, is Titian's greatest 
picture, the " Assumption," a glorious compo- 
sition, and magnificent in color. After the " Ve- 
nus," in Florence, and the " Assumption," I 
understand why Titian is called a great painter. 
In the same room, is Tintoretto's " Slave de- 
livered by St. Mark," considered his best work, 
23 



178 SKETCHES ABROAD 

— a picture of great force, but not equal to Ti- 
tian's, in elevation of sentiment or splendor of 
color. There are, also, here, many pictures by 
Paul Veronese, which we had no time to examine, 
but left for another day. 

With Columbus in advance like a true navi- 
gator, we wander through the narrow streets of 
this remarkable city, — streets so narrow that we 
are obliged to walk in single file, — and submit 
blindly to his guidance, which, however, is some- 
times at fault, as we occasionally find ourselves 
literally at the "jumping-off place," — a canal at 
our feet, — or in small courts, having no outlet 
but the alley by which we had entered. Wander- 
ing in this way, one day, we came to the Rialto, 
where, in place of the princely " merchants," a 
crowd of venders of fruits and small wares now 
fills the square. We crossed the bridge and 
bought some trifling souvenirs of Venice from 
the shops which line it on either side. 

We have visited the Ducal Palace, which is 
truly magnificent, — its enormous rooms lined 
with pictures by the best masters of the Venetian 
School. One of these, by Tintoretto, said to be 
the largest in the world, covers the whole of one 
end of the Grand Council Chamber ; the subject 
is Paradise, but it is so much injured by time, 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. I 79 

that it was utterly impossible to form any idea of 
its merit as a work of art. Ascending a staircase, 
we came to the apartment in which met the 
famous Council of Ten, also the Senate Chamber, 
Chapel, etc. The ceilings, as well as the walls, of 
all these noble rooms, are covered with elaborate 
compositions, many of them by Tintoretto and 
Veronese, — some of the latter very fine. The 
" Bocca de Leone," which is in the ante-chamber 
of the Hall of the Council of Ten, is no longer 
a lions mouth, being reduced to nothing more 
than a very commonplace, post-office-like open- 
ing, with however, the iron box, which once re- 
ceived the anonymous denunciations, still in its 
original position. Last of all, we descended to 
the dungeons. We entered the cell in which 
Marino Faliero was confined for one night before 
his execution : a small, stone room, about twelve 
feet by eight, having a stone block in one corner 
for a bed. 

The Bridge of Sighs has two windows on 
each side, and two" passages, now closed, for- 
merly communicating with the prison on the 
opposite side of the canal. In a narrow entry, 
before crossing the bridge, are the remains of a 
beam, where the prisoners were secretly garoted 
and their bodies slipped through a small door on 



180 SKETCHES ABROAD 

the left, into a boat, which lay ready to receive 
them in the canal below. 

Wishing to view the renowned Bridge from 
without, this morning we took a gondola and 
soon were moving in that direction. Beneath it, 
opening from the dungeons of the Ducal Palace, 
we saw a massive, rusty door, over which, of 
course, we shuddered, and imagined the suffer- 
ings of the unfortunate wretches who might have 
been dragged, dead or alive, through it. The 
canal is gloomy enough to have been the scene 
of many a foul deed, and one has no wish to 
linger on it long ; so, with a word to our gondo- 
lier, we glided swiftly toward the Grand Canal, 
now gay with barchettas darting about in every 
direction, — their brightly colored canopies flut- 
tering in the light breeze, — mingled with funereal- 
looking gondolas, whose steel prows glittered in 
the sunlight as they passed and repassed. We vis- 
ited several churches, and saw pictures by Titian, 
and acres more by Tintoretto, and others of 
less note. I say saw, but, in most cases, we only 
looked at them, for the churches are so dark, the 
pictures so badly hung, and often half concealed 
by the altars and their decorations placed in front 
of them, it is a difficult matter to see them at all. 
Titian's altar piece, in the church of the Frari, 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. l8l 

. # 

called the Pala del Pesaro, is one of his finest 
efforts ; the composition simple and grand — the 
figures finely disposed and possessing great dig- 
nity ; that of St. Peter, majestic. In the same 
church is a very large and elaborate monument 
to Titian, and another to Canova ; the latter a 
very singular design representing several veiled 
and weeping figures entering a pyramid. The 
Peter Martyr of Titian, in the Church of Santi 
Giovanni e Paolo, possesses, perhaps, the highest 
reputation of any of his works. I cannot say 
that it moved me as did the altar piece. The 
figures seem too small for the canvass on which 
they are painted, and too much importance is 
given to the background which rises high above 
their heads ; neither did the color appear to me 
as equal to that of some of his other pictures. 

This city is singularly fascinating, but the eye 
feels a want — a want of the rich and gorgeous 
costumes which Titian and Giorgione delighted 
to paint, and which are associated more with 
Venice than any other of the Italian cities. 

The Venetians of to-day seem out of time and 
place, as if the inhabitants of one of our own 
towns had suddenly taken possession, so little 
does their plain and sombre attire harmonize 
with the splendor of the architecture, time-worn 



182 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



and faded though it be; and the mind is op- 
pressed with sadness at witnessing the fallen 
grandeur of the " Queen of the Sea." 




The enclosed sketch is of a Venetian water 
carrier, and will show you how the water from 
the wells is distributed about the city. 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 83 



B 



Paris, June 17. 

ACK again for the third time, in Paris, and 
in delightful apartments upon the Avenue 
des Champs Elysees. After leaving Venice we 
found little to interest us in Milan, except its 
magnificent Cathedral, Da Vinci's " Last Supper," 
and some other fine pictures. The Cathedral is 
wonderfully rich and delicate in design, its light 
and airy ornamentation looking like frozen lace. 
I can compare it to nothing else. After walking 
through the interior with its splendid columns, 
and ancient, stained glass windows, we ascended 
to the roof, which is like a perfect forest of marble 
pinnacles and statues. From it, we beheld sev- 
eral of the Alpine peaks, which looked like float- 
ing rose-colored clouds at sunset. The heat was 
so great we were glad to descend and return to 
our hotel. 

The next day we took the cars for Paris, in- 
tending to cross Mount Cenis in a private car- 
riage, which we were to take at Susa, a small 
village at the foot of the mountain. We reached 
it about midnight, and were guided to the inn, — 



1 84 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



a melancholy looking hole, 




by an Italian agent 


of the diligence line which 


l runs from that point. 






We found 


ife^ 




the house 




1 
i 




shut up and 


w/)/M 

wi//i i 

/ v 


i ! 




apparently 






deserted ; 








but after 


/MB 


1 'jflKs^f^ 




ringing at 


AIHHI 






the door, it 


B'liilllllSil^. V ^lilll^- 


1 


was opened 
by a feeble 


'twEh W-f% Igmf 


■ \ 


and most un- 


m 'Nfw- 


i 


happy look- 


.IpBte-w^m^yi^' ' 


ing French 


/'■■■te^^'^O^ «< >^6i 




\ > waiter, of 


VlBtfHral 




slight frame 


flB ^ 




and general- 


HI ^ 




ly woeful as- 


iIhBB 




pect, wear- 


>i. a*]' -~! 




ing little 


'flB ^^^^^^^ 




else than his 






drawers and 


W'W^T^ 




boots, and 


\~^^- — / ' 




holding in 


his hand a flickering dip. 


We inquired if rooms 


could be 


had, and after his " 


Oui, Monsieur," we 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 85 

followed him upstairs through many a dark and 
uncertain passage, poor D expecting a brig- 
and at every turn. At length we reached the 
much-desired rooms, which we found destitute 
of carpet, with rickety chairs, and a table for a 
wash-stand. Here again we paused, with the 
sad waiter and his solitary candle, his eyes half 
open, and his hair looking very much like a bad 
hedge. After discussing the breakfast hour, and 
what dainty morsels could be . had for that in- 
teresting meal, we patiently retired to our dens ; 

D piling a chest of drawers and all the 

chairs against her door, in order to keep out the 
" brigands." In the morning, much to our sur- 
prise, we found ourselves alive, and our money 
and watches still in our possession. We imme- 
diately attacked a breakfast of wretched ham and 
worse eggs, which we found it impossible to eat, 
so left them to be gobbled up by a small boy, 
whom I caught, some minutes after, bolting down 
the eggs, apparently shells and all ! Our trip 
over the mountain, for the first four hours, was 
decidedly uncomfortable from the excessive heat, 
but improved as the sun lost his power. The 
snow in some places was quite deep, — about 
four feet on a level ; the scenery was very lovely 
and often grand. 



1 86 



SKETCHES ABROAD 



We passed the night at St. Michel, in one of 
the dreariest of inns, mounting to our dormi- 
tories by a flight of dark, stone stairs that sug- 
gested a thief in every corner ; and resumed our 
journey at half-past four o'clock the next morn- 
ing. As we gradually 
left the mountains 
behind us, and ap- 
proached the more 
level country, we were 
perfectly charmed with 
the exquisite beauty of 
the scenery, the morn- 
ing mists floating laz- 
ily along the valleys 
and catching the light 
of the rising sun. 
Even at that early 
hour, groups of pea- 
sants carrying their 
implements were 
cheerfully trudging 
to their daily labor, in their rude and primitive 
costumes, several of whom I immediately intro- 
duced to the pages of my sketch-book. 

Our next stopping-place was Dijon, — an 
ancient town originally settled by the Romans, — 




WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 87 

the remains of one of their walls still to be seen. 
This place has much that is interesting; many 
of the public buildings dating back five and six 
hundred years. One church of the twelfth cen- 
tury had, upon its tower, two huge, bronze figures, 
which; with hammers, struck the hours upon a 
great bell, much after the manner of those on the 
Clock Tower in Venice. We left the good old 
town about eleven a. m., and after six hours of 
hard travelling, reached Paris, which we entered 
in the midst of a heavy storm. 

I have paid two visits to the Great Exposition, 
and have come home with shattered vertebrae and 
burning eyes. It is an endless collection of 
everything produced by the civilized world of the 
present day, and your mind staggers at the mere 
attempt to take it in. It is arranged in a series 
of circles, or ovals, the centre being a garden with 
fountains playing and adorned with statuary. 

The inner oval is entirely devoted to paintings, 
among which, I was sorry to find the American 
collection occupying so small a space ; it was, 
however, very creditable to our artists. The 
French, Florentine, and Belgian galleries contain 
some admirable pictures ; with the English I was 
rather disappointed, most of the pictures being 
dry and chalky in color. With the exception of 



1 88 SKETCHES ABROAD 

the works of art, I was more interested in the 
grounds than anything else. The customs, dress, 
and occupations of the various nations repre- 
sented ; people of different Eastern countries 
working at their trades ; Arabs riding upon 
camels ; Egyptian Temples, Turkish mosques, 
Arab tents, Swiss dairies, Russian stables ; each 
country represented in some way, and ours by 
a wretched country school-house of the simplest 
and plainest construction, — a square of white 
paint adorned with green blinds ! The American 
restaurant is in great favor, particularly with the 
French and Italians, on account of the mixed 
drinks for which we are distinguished ; cream- 
soda-water being most in demand, — a delicious 
invention, fit for the gods ! It was very amusing 
to observe the Frenchmen sitting in a row, — 
some reversed upon their chairs, their glasses to 
their eyes, — deeply interested in the movements 
of the man engaged in the process of making 
" sherry-cobblers," tossing the delicious fluid from 
one vessel into another, and finishing the compo- 
sition by placing them mouth to mouth, with a 
quick upward jerk. 

We have been sitting at the window to-day, 
watching the people go to the Grand Review 
in the Bois de Bologne, which took place in 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 1 89 

honor of the Emperor of Russia, who is now 
here. The avenue has been perfectly jammed 
with carriages and people for six or eight hours. 
The crowd was tremendous. Think of a line of 
carriages, seven abreast, for three miles ! The 
nobility appeared in their splendid equipages, 
with from four to six horses ridden by postilions 
in brilliant liveries of gayly-colored velvet and 
satin. The toilets of the ladies were of the most 
elegant description. Prominent among the dis- 
tinguished personages, were Louis Napoleon and 
his Empress, the Emperor of Russia, the Crown- 
Prince of Prussia, and others. The sidewalks 
were crowded with a moving mass of pleasure- 
seekers, thousands of them sitting smoking and 
drinking coffee, or chatting in groups in front of 
the cafes, which, you know, is 4 a French custom. 
Whenever the carriage of some celebrity was seen 
approaching, they would jump from their seats 
and rush to the curbstcne to get as near as possi- 
ble to the illustrious stranger. I never saw so 
grand a mass of people or so magnificent a dis- 
play. If Paris is not the most interesting city of 
Europe, it is certainly the most brilliant. 



I90 SKETCHES ABROAD 



London, June 22. 

\A/E left Paris on Tuesday night, and stopped 
one night on our way here, at the charm- 
ing old city of Rouen, with whose specimens of 
rich and rare architecture, we were delighted. 
The Cathedral, the Hall of Justice, the ancient 
Market Place, and the Ducal Palace, are glorious 
old "bits," most elaborate in ornamentation, fill- 
ing our brains with pleasant fancies of the past. 
The Fountain of La Pucelle was exceedingly in- 
teresting to us, on account of the historical recol- 
lections associated with it ; one of our party very 
prettily observed, that it seemed to be ever shed- 
ding tears for the sad fate of the Fair Maid of 
Orleans. We left Rouen, with regret, for Dieppe, 
where we took the steamer and crossed the chan- 
nel to Newhaven, a passage of six hours. Poor 

J , as usual, with many others on board, soon 

became limp and pale. In the midst of an inter- 
esting conversation with me, Dr. R suddenly 

disappeared, and when next I discovered him, he 
was lying in a flattened condition on the deck, 
his very sympathetic wife lying close beside him. 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 191 

The face of one old gentleman who " never was 
sick," now wore a flickering smile that rapidly 
changed " from grave to gay, from lively to 
severe," strongly suggesting an approaching 
squall. Feeble wives collapsed into the arms of 
affectionate husbands, while unprotected females 
gathered themselves up in shawls and huddled 
together under umbrellas to protect themselves 
from the dashing spray. A weak steward, with 
pink rims to his eyes, ran about the deck serving 
out basins (as waiters would plates at a dinner- 
party), or brandy and soda to those who were 
" not quite right." That benevolent mariner 
soothed the failing and despondent, and raised 
the flat and floppy into a sitting posture. Among 
the passengers were two very unfeeling Ameri- 
cans, who actually laughed at their suffering 
companions, and would not get sick to oblige 
anybody, but who were, nevertheless, very glad 
to reach London, which they found chilly, misty, 

and damp 

And now, our most interesting sojourn in 
foreign lands is rapidly drawing to a close ; and, 
thoroughly as I have enjoyed it, I shall look for- 
ward, with intense pleasure, to the first sight of 
my native land. 



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